It was one of the most vicious shots we’ve ever seen in Mixed Martial Arts.
Bellator champion Michael Page landed a flying knee on Cyborg Santos with such ferocity that it fractured his skull.
The unbeaten British welterweight had no idea at the time the extent of the injury to Santos’ skull in the fight at Bellator London.
MVP pulled out a Pokemon celebration with his opponent still down, but conscious, and cradling his face.
Photos later emerged of Santos in hospital with fractures visible on his forehead and an X-Ray which showed the true toll that sledgehammer knee took on him.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BH-FKJkBj5o/
Page was speaking with Ariel Helwani about the moment he landed the shot and the aftermath of the fight when he realised Santos was in a bad way.
Helwani asked the 29-year-old Brit if he could feel anything was wrong when he connected with his opponent’s head.
“No. I heard a sound. In all honesty I thought I was his nose. Then by the way he was…he was still conscious. He was still kicking his legs.
“Obviously in pain but I thought that I’d caught his nose or maybe even his jaw. But the way his hands were it more seemed to be his nose than anything.
“Broken noses – I’ve seen guys with that in the gym. It’s not a hard fix. It wasn’t something I was worried about at the time – I was just happy with the win and landing the shot I’d been training for.”
‘Venom’ was jubilant after landing the fight-ending shot and was busy celebrating while Santos was being taken out of the cage to hospital.
It wasn’t until later that Page found out the extent of his injuries and one report even claimed Santos had died.
Michael "Venom" Page finished his opponent with a flying knee then captured him with a Pokeball. Savage. #PokemonGo https://t.co/wXcU4Thq9k
— Mike Johnston (@MikeyJ_MMA) July 17, 2016
Helwani asked if this made it hard to feel good about the victory after the way it ended.
“Yeah 100 per cent. It’s even harder when the first new feed I got of it my brother actually read out ‘fatal injury to Cyborg’ so I was shitting myself man. That’s not something you want to be a part of. That’s not why we do this.
“Then I found out a bit more and was constantly phoning people trying to find out what was going on.
“I found out he was okay but it was still a severe injury.
“It was just very hard. It was a weird moment because you’re trying to enjoy what’s going on and then you’re just sitting there worried about your opponent. It was a weird feeling.”
Anyone who has seen the images of Santos’ head and the X-Ray of his skull cannot fail to be unnerved in some way. So Helwani obvious wanted to know if it had affected Page when returning to the gym.
“It just makes you think a bit more about the sport and, not in a selfish way, but kind of relate it to yourself. Because you’re both looking to inflict that kind of damage and it can potentially happen to either or fighter.
“But at the same time you know what you’re signing up to and it is something we enjoy as a sport – not to damage people or do anything bad to their career. It’s the sporting side and mental and physical side that we really enjoy.”
Donations are still coming in on a GoFundMe page set up to contribute to Cyborg’s hospital bills, which at the time of writing has raised more than $24,000.
