A former UFC star has issued a warning after fracturing his penis and only noticing a month later after experiencing 'excruciating pain'.
Mateus Mendonca has been through it all in recent times as he suffered three devastating losses in the Octagon across both the bantamweight and flyweight divisions in the past two years.
It's not the only pain Mendonca has had to endure recently, as he's now issued a warning after suffering a fractured penis.
I mean, ouch.
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Heck, the former UFC star has vowed never to turn down protective gear again as he recovers from his traumatic injury that led to an emergency services visit.
So, how did it happen?
Well, the Mendonca explained to Ag Fight: "I was training with [a teammate], and he landed his knee on my penis I felt an incredible amount of pain and ran to the bathroom. It started to burn. But then the pain went away and I kept going."
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But a month later, he realised how serious the problem was.
"A month later, training normally without pain, I started to notice some problems. I started to move and there was a lump," Mendonca said
"So I went to the hospital. When I got there, the doctor did an exam and immediately transferred me to another hospital for surgery."
He added: "The doctor told me to avoid training and teaching for two months. I have to stay at home and do nothing. I can’t teach and train, so I’m raffling that to have some money. I have a little daughter, and I brought my family with me to Sao Paulo to start training."
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Mendonca then went on to issue a warning to those who compete in similar sports to wear protection to ensure such an accident doesn't happen to them.
He added: "It’s a good idea to warn everyone. All the guys who train jiu-jitsu, grappling, MMA, anything that involves contact: wear a cup to avoid accidents.
"Almost no one has the habit of training with a cup, they only wear it when they’re going to fight.
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"This had never happened to me. It was the first time and look what happened. I had to have surgery. I had to be out of action for two months."
Well, after learning what he went through, there'll be few people who wouldn't heed Mendonca's warning.
Callum Jones