Evangelista ‘Cyborg’ Santos is a lucky, lucky man.
The injury sustained by the Brazilian fighter in his Bellator 158 defeat at the hands of Michael ‘Venom’ Page last week could well have turned out to be life-threatening but, remarkably, Santos believes he’ll “be back pretty quickly”.
Santos suffered a fractured skull from Page’s flying knee in the second round of their Bellator meeting and immediately went down, which prompted referee John McCarthy to call the contest off.
In the seconds following the TKO, Page celebrated by taking a prop Pokeball from his corner and throwing it at the incapacitated Santos.
Must See MVP TV tonight on @spike 9/8c#Bellator158 #PokemonGo @MichaelPage247https://t.co/VI5PYAgrhT
— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) July 16, 2016
To be fair, Page wasn’t to know that ‘Cyborg’ had been downed by such a serious injury and the British welterweight did go on to respectfully express his best wishes to his opponent the following day.
I would like to express my best wishes to @CYBORG121 & his family, as he is currently being held in hospital for a fractured skull
— Michael Venom Page (@Michaelpage247) July 17, 2016
But that’s done nothing to ease the ill will Santos feels towards Page’s brash celebrations as he’s since told MMA Fighting that he is not a fan of the lack of honour and humility shown by ‘MVP’ in victory.
“Page proved he’s a great athlete, a skillful striker. He doesn’t have a good ground game, and that’s what I was planning on working on in the fight,” Santos said, “but he’s showing to be a douchebag because he doesn’t respect his opponents before or after the fight. He’s using bad people as influences.
“He could become a celebrity with his talent and look up to other athletes, instead of acting like this. This generation looks up to (Conor) McGregor as an influence, and it’s not what being a competitor is about. Throwing things after the fight… Honestly, he’s a clown. The way he behaves is not how a champion should behave. He’s talented, yes. He’s skillful. And he fought a great fight.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BH-FKJkBj5o/
Fortunately, Santos didn’t need to even spend the night in hospital after the fight and he is currently awaiting surgery in the United States but, the relieving news is that he has confirmed that there was no brain injury sustained.
“It’s only a fracture, it didn’t hit my brain. I’m fine,” Santos added. “Actually, I didn’t even stay in the hospital. I was there for five or six hours, and then I came back to the hotel. I couldn’t fly back to the United States on Sunday, but I’ll have surgery in the United States. I’ll be back soon. Thank God I had no brain damage. I didn’t feel dizzy or anything like that. I wasn’t knocked out. I felt the pain due to the fracture. It was superficial, so it’s fine.”
