‘It was actually a bit reckless’: Vinicius Oliveira reveals significant injury suffered before loss to Mario Bautista

Vinicius Oliveira suffered his first UFC loss Saturday, tapping to a rear-naked choke against Mario Bautista at UFC Vegas 113 on Feb. 8 in Las Vegas, and revealed later that night that his arm was compromised going into the first main event of his UFC career.

“Lok Dog” told Ag. Fight that he fractured the ulna bone on his right forearm on Dec. 19, 51 days prior to the event, but decided no to withdraw from the headlining match.

“I could have cancelled the fight,” Oliveira said. “I broke my arm. There wasn’t much I could do, but I decided to move forward. For a good while we trained with my arm in a cast. It was actually a bit reckless on our part. We kept it under wraps, but I was determined to fight regardless of the injury.”

Oliveira said that his performance wasn’t good as usual because the arm was hurting again in the opening round.

“I got taken down and couldn’t do the shield to get back up because that was exactly where it hurt,” Oliveira said. “I tried, but it hurt too much. I said in between round that it was hurting. We went on through the pain, but it was really bad. I started throwing jabs, but even just the movement of punching air hurt a lot.”

“Lok Dog” revealed he was given a 180-day medical suspension by the Nevada Athletic Commission and “seriously needs to think” about moving up to featherweight going forward. Oliveira walks around 185 pounds when he’s off camp and had to cut nearly 50 pounds between Monday and Friday.

“It was the worst weight cut of my career because I couldn’t train properly, and that made it harder to lose the weight,” Oliveira said. “I had to train moderately. I couldn’t do cardio because any movement of my arm hurt.”

Oliveira was 4-0 in the UFC with wins over the likes of Said Nurmagomedov and Ricky Simon, plus a first-round knockout on Dana White’s Contender Series, before suffering his first defeat in nearly four years.