Sakai Suffered Several Broken Ribs During ‘Reem’ Fight

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Augusto Sakai suffered the first knockout loss of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career last Saturday night (Sept. 5, 2020) at UFC Vegas 9 courtesy of the powerful knees of former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight title contender, Alistair Overeem.

The Brazilian big man told Ag.fight that the injuries happened early in round two of their five-round Heavyweight tilt inside UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“In the second round, I was hit with a knee that dislocated two of my ribs,” Sakai said, speaking to AG Fight (translated by The Mac Life). “When he took me down, he hit me with an elbow that broke two more. So I was without four ribs, so to speak. That got in the way a lot. I could not defend takedowns. I could not show my jiu-jitsu. I could not defend myself very well. Kudos to him.

“I’m sure he used his experience in his favor, but I was expecting that. What made things difficult for me, and I’m not trying to come up with an excuse here, was the pain in my ribs. Even then, I tried to endure it as much as I could.”

Overeem eventually went on to defeat Sakai in the fifth and final round thanks to his devastating ground-and-pound attack, putting him in a great position in the championship hunt while forcing Sakai back to the drawing board.

Indeed, the loss snapped Augusto’s six-fight win streak, and after tasting defeat for the first time inside the Octagon he will now take the time to heal up before he mounts a comeback to start a whole new win streak.