Menifield survives gruesome thumb injury to stun unbeaten Baraniewski at UFC 331

Alonzo Menifield produced one of the grittier performances of the UFC calendar year, fighting through a gruesome thumb injury to defeat unbeaten Iwo Baraniewski by split decision at UFC 331 on 19 September at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

Menifield entered the light heavyweight matchup as a sizable underdog against the undefeated Polish prospect, and the opening round did little to ease those concerns. Baraniewski came out aggressively, hurting Menifield severely and threatening to end the fight early. Menifield absorbed the punishment and survived, but it was during that first round that he sustained the thumb injury that would define the rest of the night.

By the end of the second round, the cage-side doctor was summoned to examine Menifield’s visibly damaged thumb, which was bleeding profusely. He was cleared to continue. Menifield had already begun to turn the tide in that frame, rocking Baraniewski and shifting the momentum decisively in his favour. He carried that into the third round, going toe-to-toe with Baraniewski to seal the upset on the judges’ scorecards.

In his post-fight Octagon interview, Menifield was characteristically direct about what drove him through the pain. “If this thumb, the whole wrist, all fingers would have broken, I would have kept going,” he said. “Because as I walk the streets of L.A., I see those homeless people and I got to tell you, that’s my mom. I see my mom digging through the trash as she was a little kid. As I was a little kid, I have seen her in trash cans and it broke my heart. So I always wanted to be tough. So where I come from, this is my backbone.”

The victory improves Menifield’s professional record to 19-6 and marks his second consecutive upset win, following a knockout of Mingyang Zhang in May. Back-to-back upsets against credible opposition will make the light heavyweight division take notice of “Atomic” heading into the final stretch of the year.