PHOTO | X-Ray confirms Paige VanZant broke arm in fight

Last night, in the co-main event of UFC St. Louis, former strawweight star Paige VanZant made her debut in the UFC flyweight division opposite Jessica-Rose Clark. Though VanZant hung in there for the duration, she was outworked by her larger foe for the majority of the fight, surrendering a unanimous decision as a result.

As it turns out, however, VanZant’s lasting three rounds against Clark was pretty remarkable. Between the second and third rounds, the popular fighter told her corner that she suspected she broke her arm in the first, and a post-fight x-ray proved this to be true.

VanZant shared the details on this unfortunate injury in a Sunday night post to Instagram.

Well… I broke my arm in the first! I was able to finish the fight but as you can see, had a hard recovering and throwing my right. Thank you to the @ufc and to my opponent. Thank you to my coaches and most importantly my head coach’s @therealburkecamp and @fabianoscherner . I’ll be back better and stronger than ever! 💪🏼🦁 it’s all apart of the fight game. God had other plans for me. 🙏🏼 darn spinning back fist.

A post shared by Paige VanZant (@paigevanzantufc) on Jan 14, 2018 at 9:54pm PST

“Well… I broke my arm in the first,” VanZant said in her post. “I was able to finish the fight but as you can see, had a hard [time] recovering and throwing my right. Thank you to the UFC and to my opponent. Thank you to my coaches and most importantly my head coaches [Daniel Burke] and [Fabiano Scherner]. I’ll be back better and stronger than ever! It’s all apart of the fight game. God had other plans for me. Darn spinning back fist.”

What do you think is next for Paige VanZant?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/15/2018.