‘We’re Just Lucky No One Died’

John Dodson has released a statement and photos regarding the scary near death car crash his family was in during the holiday weekend.

It was a bad start to the 4th of July when we learned that former UFC flyweight contender John Dodson had been in a terrible car crash. You never want to read the words ‘whole family’ and ‘near death accident’ together … I suppose it could be worse, but without details we were seriously concerned for Dodson and his family.

You can read Dodson’s manager’s statement on the crash here, and now John himself has gone on social media to share details of the incident.

“Just letting everyone know we’re all alive and no one is seriously injured,” he wrote on Instagram. “The car we hit was left in the middle of the highway after that person hit an 18 wheel and another car crashed into it as well. He had no Hazzards light, no flares and no other warning to let us know.”

“I hit the car and we rolled. I don’t know how many times but luckily the cables in the median stopped us from rolling onto traffic going the other direction. The guy fled on foot after he saw my vehicle rolled.. I gotta thank infinite for the design of the suv cuz it protected my family and I from dying. We’re just lucky no one died and we can live to see another day and be reminded on how luck we are.”

“Life is short and you don’t know when it’s gonna end,” Dodson finished. “So enjoy it while you can.”

Dodson was the winner of The Ultimate Fighter season 14 bantamweight tournament (beating some guy named T.J. Dillashaw in the finals) and spent nearly a decade in the UFC battling at 135 and 125 pounds, including two title fights against flyweight GOAT Demetrious Johnson. He was released by the promotion in September of 2020 with a 10-7 UFC record (21-12 MMA) and was set to return to action at an XMMA event in July before the accident scuttled that plan.

If you’d like to contribute to a GoFundMe set up to help the Dodsons with expenses incurred from this crappy accident, you can go here to donate.