Harry Hardwick was forced to concede his fight against Marwan Rahiki after the second round this weekend as a result of suffering a broken jaw, with horrifying footage from the aftermath since emerging
Harry Hardwick was left with a broken jaw from Marwan Rahiki(Image: Zuffa LLC)
Harry Hardwick was left temporarily disfigured after suffering a broken jaw during his fight with Marwan Rahiki at UFC Vegas in the early hours of Sunday morning. The Middlesbrough-born fighter has failed to find the win column since making the step up from Cage Warriors, losing his debut against Kaue Fernandes in September in the very first round following a flurry of calf kicks.
And while Hardwick will have hoped for a better outing against Rahiki this weekend, the 31-year-old was on the receiving end of a defeat in devastating fashion. After starting off strong against the Moroccan, trading hell for leather in the first round, Hardwick was stung early in the second with a powerful straight-hook combination, which left him on jellied legs.
‘Freaky’ (Rahiki) then followed ‘Houdini’ (Hadrwick) to the side of the cage, teeing off with a combination of blows to the head and the body as Hardwick did his very best to slip and duck out of the firing line. The Englishman then caught Rahiki with a hard overhand right to give himself some breathing space, although the damage was seemingly done on Hardwick’s part – his mouth wide open after sustaining a broken jaw from the initial combo, which started the onslaught.
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Despite showing a warrior’s spirit by fighting through until the end of the second round, Hardwick was prevented from going back out for the third, as he told his cornerman: “My jaw is 100 per cent broken,” before adding: “My jaw’s f***ed.”
Hardwick was then told by officials: “Yeah, we’re going to stop that,” as the cutman told him: “That’s smart Harry, I didn’t want to see you get hurt.” The fighter was then seen making his way to the centre of the Octagon to explain to Rahiki why the fight had been stopped in a showing of sportsmanship, pointing towards his jaw.
Rahiki then said: “F*** man, I’m so sorry,” as the two shared a brief embrace. In the aftermath of the loss, Hardwick took to TikTok to share a video to give fans an update on his condition from the ambulance as he taken to hospital.
He captioned the clip: “Love you all, also people can say what they want on the internet. No need to get into an argument on the internet in my defence it’s all good. I’m still grateful and I’m still blessed.”
GRAPHIC PICTURE AND VIDEO WARNING:
Speaking in the video, meanwhile, Hardwick said: “Right, I just thought I would give everyone an update while I can still talk, before the swelling gets a bit worse. It’s a good job I like soup, and it’s a good job I like milkshakes.
“Obviously, it’s not how we wanted the fight to go but internally and massively grateful for the life I have, a beautiful woman, nice house, great support network and nice family.
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Harry Hardwick gave an update from the back of an ambulance(Image: TikTok)
“I’m good, no one needs to cry for me, I chose to do this sport. If you want to do anything, get on Twitter and start saying I deserve a bonus. That would be mint! Mortgages are expensive.
“But on a level, I love you all. I love the sport – I put everything I could into this. Maybe not the best I’ve felt on fight day but that’s never a good indicator really of how you’re fighting, or how the fight goes.”
In the main event of the fight night, Kevin Vallejos secured a first-round knockout of Josh Emmett, while Gillian Robertson enjoyed a unanimous decision win over Amanda Lemos in the co-main.
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