UFC Bantamweight Bryce Mitchell doesn’t have a fight booked right now.
That doesn’t mean “Thug Nasty” is lazing around the farm, however. Like almost all of his peers on the UFC roster, Mitchell is training year round to stay fit and improve his skills. While training in Arkansas on Tuesday, Mitchell suffered a seriously broken nose. He didn’t specify how the injury occurred, but Mitchell did post on social media in the hopes that somebody could reset his nose and help him avoid a pesky doctor bill.
“I’m in Searcy, Arkansas right now and I need my nose straightened out,” a very bloody Mitchell began. “I just got it broken, it’s sideways. But dude the doctors are so expensive, it’s like $2000 just to set my nose. If somebody in Searcy by the grace of God can set my nose back straight for free … send me a message. I’ll probably go to you instead of the doctor, cause this is probably going to be like thousands of dollars.”
Unfortunately, UFC fighters do not have health insurance provided by the company. Though injuries suffered during a bout are covered, anything that happens in training camp is less guaranteed, particularly when a fighter doesn’t have an official bout booked. This issue can lead to athletes going into fights with severe injuries in the hopes of getting them treated afterward. The alternative is often getting stuck with costly medical bills if the athlete truly cannot wait for treatment.
In the comments, former Middleweight champion Sean Strickland replied, “Well I was wrong … you have to have a fight booked to get medical from the UFC lmao what a joke.”
Luckily, there’s a happy ending to this story, if not the fighter health insurance problem as a whole. Just a couple hours after his original post, Mitchell reappeared on Instagram with a positive update and straightened out nose. As it turns out, one of Mitchell’s buddies was able to reset the nose. In the process, Mitchell revealed that his destroyed scrotum repair only cost $1200 — neat!
“I wanted to let y’all know I’m doing really good,” Mitchell began in his update. “I wasn’t in any pain at all … but I was worried cause I didn’t know exactly what to do and didn’t know if it would ever come back straight again. That was my main concern, but I’m totally healed, thank the lord … I apologize for looking like a cheapskate. Right when that happened, my brain went to primal survival instinct. I started thinking, ‘Oh man, this is gonna be expensive.’ What have I done here, this is gonna be thousands of dollars to fix. It’s a shame that’s where my brain went to, but that was my main concern, and my buddy did fix it for free.”
Mitchell is in the midst of a career revival after dropping down to 135-pounds in his last bout. In his Bantamweight debut back in July, “Thug Nasty” picked up a hard-fought unanimous decision victory over Said Nurmagomedov at UFC Abu Dhabi. He’s not yet ranked in his new weight class, but it’s still a nice rebound after a couple brutal losses.
