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Fight fans aren’t liking the looks of Benoit Saint Denis’ forehead, and that’s not a knock on the rising Lightweight contender’s appearance.
Saint Denis is scheduled to face former interim champion Dustin Poirier this weekend (Sat. March 9, 2024) in the co-main event of UFC 299 from Miami, Florida. It’s a five-round booking and one of the most highly anticipated bouts of the card, as Poirier is a beloved knockout artist while “BSD” is on a major tear, having won five bouts in a row via stoppage.
Unfortunately, Saint Denis has an unpleasant looking wound on his forehead. Many took notice of the opening during recent fight week-related media, and quite a few have diagnosed the wound as a staph infection, one of the more serious illnesses that wrestling rooms can pass on.
It’s not just fans either, as fellow UFC Lightweight contender Renato Moicano thinks it could be staph as well.
BSD appears with something the look like a staph infection. Could that change the fight ? Is he taking antibiotics? Will this change the outcome of the fight ?! Give me your thoughts on the comment #ufc299 pic.twitter.com/biwYpNeX36
— Renato Moicano UFC (@moicanoufc) March 7, 2024
Reactions were mixed online, from full on panic to others dismissing the issue. Check out a sample below:
looks like a badly popped pimple
if someone has staph, doesn’t the fight get cancelled automatically?
It doesn’t change the fight because Dustin was always going to dominate
I think he said in an interview that it was from a bullet round when he was shooting. But who knows. If that is indeed staph infection, it could absolutely play a huge factor. I think BSD will be fine though
If bros on antibiotics it’s going to be a miserable weight cut
That’s gross. He shouldn’t fight with that.
Here’s the problem with the speculation: anyone could be correct. Without getting the infection tested, a small wound like that could be a nasty staph infection fully in the blood stream or it could be a popped pimple or it could be a finger nail scratch with some other kind of infection. Not every staph infection results in Kevin Randleman-esque wounds; that level of decomposition is very uncommon!
That said, antibiotics could be a real talking point if it is indeed staph. Antibiotics are known to wreak havoc on an athlete’s conditioning. For example, Luke Rockhold nearly passed out from exhaustion after defeating Chris Weidman, and he attributed the fatigue to a staph and antibiotic combo.
Bettors beware?
Insomnia
If I’m being fully honest, I thought Mickey Gall got released at some point in the last year or two.
Is my memory also faulty in remembering Sean O’Malley and/or UFC marketing him as Irish after Contenders Series? I feel like that was part of the Conor McGregor comparisons.
The great Georges St. Pierre has jokes!
Maria is the most popular first name in the world & Wang is the most common last name. How many women do you know named “Maria Wang”?
— Georges St-Pierre (@GeorgesStPierre) March 5, 2024
Francis Ngannou dropping some fire on the mic!
“Your only chance is in the boxing ring, with boxing rules. When you step out of that ring you better stay five meters away before talking your s**t, because if I lose it you’re gonna have a really bad time.”
– Francis Ngannou to Tyson Fury
— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) March 6, 2024
It would be very cool to see Ecuador celebrating a UFC champion.
Marlon “Chito” Vera did two media days today in Miami — one in English and one in Spanish. That is the first time in the history of the UFC something like this has happened, per PR.
The reason? More than 40 reporters from Vera’s native Ecuador flew into Miami for #UFC299 and…
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) March 6, 2024
Whatever those officers were being paid was not worth a potential Mike Tyson left hook.
Conor McGregor is a confirmed Sean Strickland fan.
BJJ ace Mikey Musumeci and actor Tom Hardy working some arm drags!
Slips, rips, and KO clips
We see this kind of marching step/low kick feint all the time in MMA, but nobody is throwing uppercut elbows off them!
Footage from a referee body cam!
This girl put some stink onto that right hand — clearly some training here!
Random Land
“I got mercury poisoning
It’s fatal and it don’t get better”
Midnight Music: Funk rock, 2002
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
