LFA 197 took place on November 22nd, 2024 and it started out like much any other MMA event, but the main event saw one fighter suffer a broken arm due to an armbar and still manage to somehow finish out a five-round title-fight. It was undoubtedly one of the craziest displays of grit and toughness ever seen on the regional MMA circuit, and even the commentators working the event had never seen anything like it. The most astonishing part of the whole thing is the fact that the armbar actually happened in the very first round of the fight, and she very clearly reset her arm in between that and the second round.
Yasmin Guimares and Natasha Kuziutina were meeting in the main event of LFA 197 and the promotion’s interim strawweight title was on the line, as Kuziutina was the defending champion. Guimares was the woman who got caught in the armbar towards the end of round one and it very clearly caused some severe damage to her arm. After resetting the arm, she was allowed to continue the fight and somehow made it through all four of the other rounds. Unfortunately for Guimares, she wasn’t able to get the Cinderella-story comeback she was looking for and she lost a unanimous decision to Kuziutina instead.
UFC Fight Pass shared the shocking footage of Guimares’ arm being broken while she was caught in the armbar in a post to their official X account:
HOW IS SHE NOT TAPPING?!?!?! #LFA197 pic.twitter.com/QnTToc1KCl
— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) November 23, 2024
The referee did decide to check on Guimares after the first round had ended but she’d already managed to reset the break at that point, and she was determined to continue the fight:
WHAT. IS. HAPPENING.
Yasmin Guimarães had her arm dislocated in round one, it was popped back into place between rounds and she'll come off the stool for round 2 #LFA197 pic.twitter.com/gxwTYdomHx
— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) November 23, 2024
Although Guimares didn’t get her hand raised at the end of the fight at LFA 197, any MMA fighter escaping an armbar that causes that much damage and still finishing the fight is going to get noticed. Both her and obviously Kuziutina will likely have started to attract attention from other major MMA promotions and it wouldn’t be surprising to see one or both of them competing on a bigger stage in the future. Guimares will undoubtedly have to take a little time off in order to recover from the injury, but someone with that amount of determination doesn’t tend to take long rest periods.
