Fabio Maldonado won’t be training or fighting for a while.
The former UFC light heavyweight, who returned to the win column with a first-round victory in Tajikistan in March, suffered an accident at home Saturday. He then posted the play-by-play of his scary injury on his Instagram page.
“I had an accident and will undergo emergency surgery here in Sorocaba,” Maldonado wrote in a post that shows a cut in his hand. “I lost a lot of blood, but thank God I’ll be fine.”
In a separate post, in which he shows the trails of blood on the ground, Maldonado says he “lost a lot of blood, but thank God I’m already going to surgery." (Warning: the photos are graphic.)
Maldonado underwent a 35-minute surgery on Saturday and was released from the hospital on Sunday, he told MMA Fighting on Monday.
The accident, Maldonado says, happened when he slipped in the stairs at home and fell over a glass door.
“I cut an artery and underwent a quick surgery,” Maldonado told MMA Fighting. “I'll get it checked again in a week. I can't (train or fight) for three months."
Maldonado (23-11) was released from the UFC on a two-fight losing streak in 2015, and put on one of the most impressive performances of his career against Fedor Emelianenko in June 2016, coming close to finishing the former PRIDE heavyweight champion before losing a controversial decision in Russia.
The Brazilian fighter moved up to heavyweight once again less than four months later to face Mikhail Mokhnatkin, but was defeated by decision. Maldonado put an end to the losing skid in March, stopping Abdul-Khamid Davlatov via first-round TKO in a 220-pound catchweight bout.