Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brown belt Amanda Mazza recently shared the harrowing details of breaking her own arm during a competition at Fury, an injury that occurred in perhaps the most unusual way possible while she was applying a submission, not defending one.
The incident happened during what appeared to be a dominant performance. Mazza had hit a duck under, taken her opponent’s back, and immediately locked in a rear-naked choke upon hitting the mat.
“I literally thought I snapped her jaw”
Mazza recalled on the Jits and Giggles Podcast.
“Like, I thought I snapped her jaw because I was squeezing with the life of me”
The snap was so loud that even the referee reacted in shock. Initially both competitors thought something had happened to Mazza‘s opponent. But when Mazza went to re-adjust her grip reality set in.
“I felt like the bone in my arm kind of, like, flipped, and I said—I literally said—oh no, it’s my arm”
she explained.
What makes Mazza‘s reaction remarkable is how calm she remained throughout the ordeal.
“I literally was not in pain until we got to the hospital”
she said. Her boss, JJ Thomas from Primal Physical Therapy, where Mazza works, was in attendance and immediately began assessing the injury. Mazza‘s composure was so striking that those around her were unnerved by her lack of reaction.
The injury turned out to be a complete fracture of her radius bone. According to her surgeon who has worked with UFC stars including Joe Pyfer it was a “perfect storm” situation. The break occurred not from poor technique but from the combination of her squeezing force and her opponent pushing into her elbow at precisely the wrong angle.
“He said the extra force ‘cuz she was trying to push up over her face… that was right when it happened”
Mazza explained. The surgeon confirmed that without that additional pushing motion the arm likely would not have broken.
The injury required surgery to install a titanium plate roughly the size of her forearm, which will remain permanently unless it breaks again or causes problems. The recovery timeline was set at six to eight weeks though Mazza admitted this felt devastating despite being relatively short.
“Everyone’s like, ‘Dude, that’s not even a long time.’ But, like, to me it is”
This was not Mazza‘s first injury of 2024, which she dubbed “the year of injuries.” She had previously broken her hand in March during wrestling practice and suffered a gruesome finger dislocation just a month before the arm break, a zigzag injury so severe that observers wished they had captured it on camera though it felt too insensitive at the moment.
What’s helped Mazza through recovery has been her team at Web MMA and Primal Physical Therapy. She has credited her physical therapist JJ Thomas and the staff at Primal with keeping her ahead of schedule and maintaining her mental health.
“Watching you guys win, I win because I share the mats with these people”
Mazza said reflecting on how supporting her team through their successes has made her injury recovery more bearable than expected.
As for the match result Mazza was given a loss despite being in a dominant position when the injury occurred. While she questioned whether it should have been ruled a no contest she is more grateful that it was her arm and not her opponent’s jaw.
“God forbid it was her jaw… I would never want that for a female or anybody at all”
