Jacob Rosales was one of 10 rising mixed martial artists to earn a UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series 19 on Tuesday, July 9. Rosales took on Jonathan Pearce in the opening bout of the card on ESPN+ but things did not go as planned.
Less than two minutes into the third and final round, Pearce was able to score a TKO victory thanks to some heavy ground-and-pound which earned him the highly-coveted contract.
Despite the loss, Rosales’ performance was impressive thanks to what we learned after the fight.
As it turns out, Rosales was competing on a broken leg and had just had his cast taken off two weeks ago. Even with the broken leg, Rosales found a way to continue training and would not pull out of the fight. He discussed the injury on social media.
“So tonight wasn’t my night, I went out and fought my heart out and gave everything thing I could. I wanted this more than anything in the world,” he wrote. on Instagram. “Four weeks ago I broke my fibula in half and got my cast off 2 weeks ago. There was nothing that was going to stop me from fighting tonight, ultimately it didn’t go in my favor and I gassed. I want to apologize to my coaches and my team… I will be back stronger!”
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Here is another look at the x-ray showing Rosales’ injury.
UFC contracts were also awarded to Joe Solecki, Antonio Trocoli, Hunter Azure, and Maki Pitolo.
The full results from Dana White’s Contender Series 19 can be seen below.
Dana White’s Contender Series 19 Results
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- Joe Solecki def. Jesse Wallace via technical submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 3:49
- Antonio Trocoli def. Kenneth Bergh via submission (neck crank) – Round 1, 3:57
- Hunter Azure def. Christian Ocon via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
- Maki Pitolo def. Justin Sumter via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 1:37
- Jonathan Pearce def. Jacob Rosales via TKO (punch) – Round 3, 1:50
