Lineker Suffered Broken Jaw Against Dillashaw

Bantamweight slugger John Lineker has a reputation as one of the sport’s toughest fighters, but he has outdone himself. In his UFC 207 loss to T.J. Dillashaw, Lineker reportedly suffered a broken jaw in the first round and continued to eat hard shots from the former champion without backing down.

Lineker told MMAFighting’s Guilherme Cruz that a Dillashaw head-kick caused the injury in the opening five minutes of Friday’s fight,

“I felt a pop right away,” Lineker said. “I wasn’t dizzy or anything like that, but I felt a pop. I thought ‘it was just the kick, no problem,’ but it start to hurt a lot in the second round. I truly felt it in the third, when I took all of his punches."

Lineker will not be able to eat anything but soft food for at least two weeks. He said he will not have to get surgery done to repair the injury.

Though he felt pain during the fight, the Brazilian top-five contender said that the severity of the injury did not become apparent right away after the bout was over.

“I left the Octagon and talked to the doctors, everything was normal,” he said. “I could move my jaw, all normal, so they cleared me and said to let them know if I felt anything. When I went to another room to eat something and watch the fights, I felt the pain and it didn’t stop.

“It was time to go back to the hotel, and I couldn’t handle the pain anymore. I told my wife to call my manager, and I couldn’t wait until the next morning. We called the UFC doctor, and they sent me back to the hotel to do some exams, and a MRI showed two fractures."

The Nevada State Athletic Commission announced that Lineker would receive a six-month medical suspension because of his injury.