Leg breaks, shoulders popping out, gruesome cuts and many other unfortunate injuries are part of what comes with competing in MMA. It’s a sad, but very real and unavoidable consequence of professional fighting.
Although there have been some scary scenes in recent years, perhaps none is more frightening than Vicente Luque’s near-career-ending injury, which went undetected by the naked eye.
In August 2022, Luque (22-9-1 MMA, 15-5 UFC) suffered his first knockout loss after proving unstoppable in 30 professional fights prior. What appeared to be Luque’s worst career loss sporting-wise, also happened to be his worst physically.
“When I went to the hospital, and I’m not one to get scared easily, I got the news, and I wasn’t scared,” Luque told MMA Junkie in Spanish, recalling when the doctor broke the news he had a brain hemorrhage. “I felt things were going to be ok. I felt fine. I did have a headache, when I would stand up I would get a little dizzy, but I was there. I could call my family, talk to my wife, my mom, so I thought I was fine.”
Luque was dropped twice and wobbled multiple times by a heavy-handed Geoff Neal before getting knocked out in the third round of their co-main event bout at UFC on ESPN 40. It was the first time fans had ever seen the Brazilian striker that badly hurt.
The UFC welterweight contender didn’t fully understand the gravity of the situation when he first got the news of his condition. In many ways, he took fighting for granted. After all, he competed 30 times prior with no major physical issues. He had been fighting for the entirety of his adult life.
“Three or four days after I got out of the hospital, I went to the neurologist, and he said, ‘Ok, let’s see how you recover, so we can know if you can fight again,'” Luque said when reality finally hit. “When they said that, I was like, ‘What? If I can fight again? But I’m fine.’ He was like, ‘No. We need to wait and see because if you don’t recover, this can keep happening. Each body is different, so we need to follow it.’
“That was a tough moment. I focused on recovering well, which meant not training and taking things very slow compared to what I’m used to. I usually take two weeks off after a fight and then start training again. I’m always active, doing things: working on the cars, cooking, doing things around the house, and I couldn’t do any of that. I needed to be resting, and resting meant I was thinking.”
This was Luque’s biggest secret. The MMA world was oblivious to what was happening because he decided to keep the information to himself.
It was then that the doubts began to creep in. Did his career come to an end? Were his dreams of being UFC champion over? How was he going to provide for his family?
There were many things riding on whether Luque was ever going to be physically fit to step into the octagon again.
“I was thinking, ‘What’s going to happen? Will I recover?'” Luque said. “That’s when my faith came in because I would speak to God. Yes, I had doubts, but I also had faith. Throughout those conversations and reflecting on my career, I was able to get many answers to things.”
Luque did everything in his control to recover the best he could, and then left the rest up to his belief in God.
“The Silent Assassin” took 2 months off from any major physical training. He would walk and slowly began to incorporate jogging with time. Once he started feeling better, he began slowly working his way back into the gym and didn’t properly train until six months after the initial diagnosis.
Throughout all that, Luque did a lot of brain imaging and sure enough, his brain healed.
Luque returned to the octagon on Aug. 12, a year after his brain hemorrhage diagnosis, and headlined UFC on ESPN 51 in a high-profile bout against former UFC lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos. He won the fight by unanimous decision.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – AUGUST 12: (R-L) Vicente Luque kicks Rafael Dos Anjos of Brazil in a welterweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at UFC APEX on August 12, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Al Powers/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
This was all, of course, after the Nevada Athletic Commission medically cleared Luque upon negative tests, re-licensing him to engage in professional fighting.
“Right now, if a doctor, who doesn’t know what I’ve been through, looks at my exams, they don’t know what I went through,” Luque said. “I recovered so well that you can’t see anything. I don’t have any type of scarring or anything like that, so I’m good. Either way, after this last fight, I went to the hospital and the doctors took a look at me in the arena, and even though I didn’t need to go to the hospital, they sent me anyway just for precaution given everything I’ve been through. So I went, I was out after like 20 minutes and everything was good.
“This is something I’m going to continue to monitor closely, but I know I’m good. The doctors told me I’m 100 percent. They told me I don’t need to, but I could take as many shots as I wanted, like I used to. I know I’m 100 percent recovered and I feel great. So it’s all good, and now I can do what I love most, which is fighting.”
The brain hemorrhage scare was life-changing for Luque, even though his life and career picked up just where he left off.
It was a moment for reflection. For the first time ever, Luque entertained the idea that it was all over, that everything he had been working for since he was 17 years old, was gone.
After deep consideration, Luque moved his family from Brazil to South Florida and began training full-time at Kill Cliff FC. He made many changes in his training, and now has a completely different outlook on his approach to fighting. Luque’s determination to maximize his potential is like never before.
“I do think it was needed,” Luque said regarding the health scare. “Some people are just hardheaded. I’m one of those. It’s tough for me to reflect on things, and sometimes I realize things once I’ve already fallen. I think, in a way, it needed to be this way.
“I’m on a good path. That’s why I talk about God. He knew what the plan was and the way to show me what I needed to do. It was hard to live through those doubts, but keeping focused and positive made me grow. I think I will become a much better fighter from this, much more dangerous and even more entertaining.”
Apart from the technical aspects and an honest look at what he needs to improve in, Luque’s health scare also reignited his drive to achieve his lifelong goal – become UFC welterweight champion.
“This new game is going to be quite something,” Luque said. “What I had before was Vicente 1.0. Right now it’s Vicente 2.0, but the plan is to combine the two and make Vicente 3.0, which will be a fighter who not only has good striking and marches forward like I do, but also a fighter that can fight backward, who can take the fight to the ground and can grapple all five rounds. I’m going to do it all.”
Not long ago, Luque was knocking on the door of the UFC title and that’s not something to overlook, despite a few recent shortcomings. Throughout this entire process, he realized an appreciation for how far he’s come, which is something he didn’t give himself much credit for previously.
“I’m now more thankful, and I can see things with more value and appreciate the things that I’ve done in my career,” Luque explained. “Before, I had the dream of being a champion and only when I became champion then I would be able to appreciate it all and be happy with everything. That changed.
“Yes, I still believe I’m going to be champion, and that’s what I’m working for, but now I can enjoy the journey and every step of it. I got as high as No. 4 in the rankings, and then I fell off with two defeats. The last loss put me in a very unique spot because maybe I was never going to fight again, and at that moment, I was able to look back and see everything that I’ve put in. From 15 years old starting to train to 17 when I went professional, all that could’ve gone away in just one fight.”
Luque’s quest for UFC gold continues this December, as he’s scheduled to return on the last pay-per-view of the year, UFC 296. He takes on undefeated rising contender Ian Garry in a crucial welterweight clash.
Now more than ever, Luque is determined to make another run for the belt. He believes this refocusing and new appreciation for fighting is what he needs to reach the top.
“There’s a reason why I recovered so well,” Luque said. “There’s a reason why I’m here, and it’s not just for me. It’s not just because of my will and my dream, it’s more than that. It’s so I can be an example and show people who don’t believe in miracles or that things can change. Yes, it can be done. You can go to a hospital and the doctors can tell you have something terrible, and you might never fight again. But if you believe, you have faith, you work hard, and do what you’re supposed to do, you can turn things around.
“That’s what’s important for me today. Now more than ever, I want to be champion. If I become champion, given everything I’ve been through, I can be an even bigger example for people.”
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