Fan favorite UFC heavyweight appears to injure himself while being introduced for UFC 308 fight and is stopped after two-year absence

Fan favorite UFC heavyweight appears to injure himself while being introduced for UFC 308 fight and is stopped after two-year absence
Fan favorite UFC heavyweight appears to injure himself while being introduced for UFC 308 fight and is stopped after two-year absence

Returning to the UFC Octagon for the first time in two years at UFC 308 was heavyweight fan favorite Chris Barnett, who took on Kennedy Nzechukwu.

After a terribly unfortunate two years outside of the Octagon, Chris Barnett finally returned on Saturday at UFC 308 as he was matched up with ferocious heavyweight, Kennedy Nzechukwu.

During his two years away from the cage, Barnett has been recovering from an Achilles injury which has continued to cause him problems.

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Chris Barnett injures himself whilst being announced by Bruce Buffer moments before fight

Finally returning to action, the 5’9″ heavyweight fan favorite got huge applause from the fans and also got the biggest pop at the ceremonial weigh-ins this past Friday.

With the 38-year-old finally moments away from his first fight in over two years, in typical Bruce Buffer fashion, he brought all the energy to the ring announcement for ‘Beastboy’.

Unfortunately, though, after performing a tuck-jump whilst Buffer was shouting his name, the 38-year-old landed extremely awkwardly on his feet and fell backward into the cage.

Although at the time Barnett didn’t show clear discomfort, it was clear he had caused himself an injury with the way he landed on his feet. A similar situation occurred when Brian Ortega took on Yair Rodriguez, and moments before the fight Ortega jumped up and rolled his ankle on the landing.

With luck quite clearly not on Barnett’s side, he attempted to shake off whatever injury he caused himself, and the fight began.

Kennedy Nzechukwu scores TKO win after Barnett goes down injured

From the beginning of the fight, it was clear Barnett was injured as he came out in a southpaw stance, which the commentary team initially thought was a tactical approach, but it was seemingly due to his injury.

‘The African Savage’ may not have noticed that Barnett had caused himself an injury, but from the opening bell, he made sure he put on forward pressure and pushed the 38-year-old back up against the cage.

The Nigerian began to do some clean work to Barnett’s body, with Barnett’s only answer being attempting a big counter-overhand.

Not long into the first round, Barnett attempted his signature spinning wheel kick and seemed to only aggravate his injury, which marked the beginning of the end.

Moments later, Nzechukwu closed the distance and began firing punches which crumbled Barnett to the ground as he could no longer stand the pain of his injury, and the referee fortunately stepped in.

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