Josh Hinger was recently training with female MMA star and former UFC title contender Cat Zingano when accidentally suffering a clear break in his finger instead. The injury was so clear in fact that Hinger’s finger was pointing virtually in the opposite direction as it’s meant to. The injury was quickly corrected by Zingano however, as she almost immediately grabbed a hold of Hinger’s finger and snapped it back into the correct position. It was certainly gruesome to look at it but in the long run, finger injuries are pretty par for the course when it comes to grappling sports. Hinger is an veteran grappler too so it’s unlikely that he’s never suffered an injury to his fingers before, especially considering the level he competes at on a regular basis.
They don’t require very much in terms of rehabilitation and can actually be worked around pretty effectively in training although they will certainly be very painful in the moment, as you can see by the look on Hinger’s face when the pain sets in. Zingano also looked horrified afterward when she realized what had happened and the amount of pain that Hinger was in, pretty understandably too. It might seem strange at first considering that Zingano has been in well over a dozen professional MMA fights and has put other women under threat of broken bones on a regular basis with four submission wins to her name.
Regardless, any athlete wants their opponent to leave the cage uninjured and would much rather force them to tap than actually cause any lasting damage. That applies even moreso when the other person isn’t actually a proper opponent and is one of your long-time friends and training partners instead. Injuries happen in training all the time, but that doesn’t mean that the person on the other side of it feels any less bad about it.
Josh Hinger uploaded the post to his official Instagram account that was clearly intended to showcase some high-level grappling training between him and Cat Zingano but unfortunately ended up being live footage of the break in his finger happening instead: