Felipe Pena‘s match at BJJ Bet ultimately ended in his favor, with his opponent Erberth Santos verbally tapping to end the action due to claims of feeling unwell. But before Pena passed Santos’ guard and easily got to mount — which ultimately marked the end of the match — Santos managed to score some points of his own. And in that first minute of the match, Pena suffered an injury that he had to try to hide, lest his opponent try to take advantage of a perceived weakness.
While some people picked up that Pena appeared to have hurt his ankle during the match, the extent of the damage wasn’t clear until later. Now, he’s shared some photos of the damage, along with his own thoughts on the injury:
“I confess that I was very anxious and nervous for this fight! I was too long without a fight and for all the history and provocation, losing this would not be like losing any other. 30sec of fight I twisted my foot at the time of the fall and knew I had hurt badly but I didn’t want to show the injury to the opponent. I remained calm and focused on the goal without ever discrediting, because I know that I am prepared for any adversity!”
“Sometimes something goes wrong and we have to be cool in order to deal with these situations! I take this in my career as an athlete but also in everything in life. ‘It’s not about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can be hit and keep going. That’s how victory is won.‘”
There’s no new yet on the specifics of Pena’s injury, but hopefully he’ll be recovered and back to competing soon.
