Francis Ngannou was almost forced to pull out of his fight with Ciryl Gane after "blowing his knee out" three weeks from the bout.
Ngannou made his first world heavyweight title defence at UFC 270 against the unbeaten Gane, taking a five-round unanimous decision victory to unify the division.
Gane had been made interim champion last summer when he defeated Derrick Lewis at UFC 265, and had never lost in MMA prior to last night's bout.
But the fight almost never took place after Ngannou suffered a severe knee injury just weeks away from their fight day, with renowned MMA manager Ali Abdelaziz saying he didn't know how Ngannou was able to show up.
"I was at the gym three weeks ago when Francis blew out his knee," Abdelaziz said in a tweet.
"I don’t know how this man show up and fight like this, congratulations Francis Ngannou... Wow."
And in his octagon interview after the bout, he confirmed the injury, admitting he wanted to pull out.
“It’s been a really tough training camp,” Ngannou told Joe Rogan in his post-fight interview. “A lot of s***.
"Three weeks ago, I tore my MCL completely and hurt my ACL and other stuff - I wanted to pull out of this fight.
"But I couldn’t see myself retreating from this fight, it was an opportunity for me to make a statement and to remind people that I'm the champ.
"You guys might sleep on me, kind of forget about me but I put in work every day."
He later said at the post-fight press conference that he knew it could be a stupid idea to fight with such a severe injury, but he was confident he could get the win.
"You don't know what could happen," Ngannou said. "I could have withdrawn from this fight, got injured in another fight and it been even worse.
"We're doing this sport that is very dangerous, you can hurt yourself all the time so if you feel there is a chance that you can do it I think you have to.
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"I believe in myself, I've been through a lot of stuff in my life, so it might have been a dumb decision but I didn't want to withdraw from this fight.
"I was very confident that I would win this fight."
Ngannou will likely now take some time to heal from his injury, as well as engaging in fresh contract negotiations with the promotion after declaring before the fight that he would no longer be competing for $600,000 guarantees.
He is at odds with promoter Dana White, who has issues with his management team at CAA, and has struggled to come to a deal with the UFC.
Ngannou likely will still have to defend his belt once again despite his contract ending due to a championship clause, but it remains to be seen if he will accept a bout with another top contender.
"It's been a long time that I've been wondering about my future in the company," Ngannou told the media after the fight. "So nothing has changed, I'm still in the same position."
