{"id":175248,"date":"2026-02-22T08:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T08:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/175248\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T08:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T08:07:09","slug":"three-fighters-transported-to-the-hospital-following-ufc-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/175248\/","title":{"rendered":"Three fighters transported to the hospital following UFC Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

Better to be safe than sorry \u2026<\/p>\n

Following UFC Houston<\/a> last night (Sat., Feb. 21, 2026) inside Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, promotion officials confirmed to MMAmania.com<\/a> that three fighters were transported to a local hospital for precautionary reasons after sustaining damage in their respective bouts.<\/p>\n

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The fighters were Ramiz Brahimaj, Nora Cornolle, and UFC newcomer Josiah Harrell.<\/p>\n

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Harrell (11-1) was taken for precautionary CT scans of his head and face after suffering a devastating knockout loss to surging prospect Jacobe Smith (watch highlights<\/a>). The finish was one of the more violent stoppages on the card, with Harrell rendered unconscious after a reversal led to a crushing sequence from Smith.<\/p>\n

UFC CEO Dana White addressed the knockout during his post-fight press conference<\/a>, calling it one of the worst he\u2019s seen in recent memory and noting that the promotion will continue to monitor Harrell in the coming days.<\/p>\n

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Harrell saw his previously unblemished record snapped in brutal fashion. The 27-year-old\u2019s journey to the Octagon has been anything but smooth \u2014 previously signed to face<\/a> Jack Della Maddalena on short notice before being released due to a rare brain condition<\/a>, he ultimately fought his way back to the UFC.<\/p>\n

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Brahimaj (13-6) was also transported for precautionary CT scans following a hard-fought three-round battle against Puna Soriano, absorbing several heavy shots throughout the contest. The loss snapped his three-fight win streak, which included finishes over Austin Vanderford, Billy Goff (watch highlights<\/a>), and Mickey Gall. Notably, Brahimaj owns a 100 percent finish rate in his victories and has yet to win a decision in his career, with all but one of his losses coming by decision.<\/p>\n

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As for Cornolle (9-4), she was taken to the hospital for a scan of her shoulder and collarbone after being submitted by Joselyne Edwards on the UFC Houston prelims (watch highlights<\/a>). After the fight, she was screaming in pain and could not leave the arena on her feet, resulting in her being carted out. She was also knocked out with a slam before the finishing sequence, but the referee did not catch it.<\/p>\n

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The 36-year-old French fighter is now riding a two-fight losing streak, and UFC Houston was her first stoppage loss.<\/p>\n

At this time, the results of both fighters\u2019 scans have not been disclosed.<\/p>\n

It is normal<\/a> for UFC to transport fighters to the hospital for precautionary reasons, especially if the fighters are involved in three-round battles that are full of damage or after suffering nasty knockouts.<\/p>\n

Stick with MMAmania.com<\/a> for the fighters\u2019 health-related updates.<\/p>\n

For complete UFC Houston results and play-by-play, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Better to be safe than sorry \u2026 Following UFC Houston last night (Sat., Feb. 21, 2026) inside Toyota…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,70716,70715,70620,70714,70712,70713,45158,27,48535,69884],"class_list":{"0":"post-175248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-houston-headlines","10":"tag-houston-news","11":"tag-jack-della-maddalena","12":"tag-jacobe-smith","13":"tag-joselyne-edwards","14":"tag-josiah-harrell","15":"tag-nora-cornolle","16":"tag-precautionary-reasons","17":"tag-ramiz-brahimaj","18":"tag-texas","19":"tag-toyota-center","20":"tag-ufc-fight-night"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}