Josh Barnett breaks his hand on Cormier’s head

Daniel Cormier broke his right hand when he knocked out Antonio Silva in September 2011. Last night he broke it again in his Strikeforce fight with Josh Barnett. In fact, he and Josh Barnett fought most of their five-round war in the cage with broken hands as Barnett broke his left hand early in the first round.

Barnett commented post-fight: “I broke my left hand on Daniel’s head in the first round. I wasn’t going to stop fighting. I was going to make him earn it.” According to Leland LaBarre, Barnett’s manager, the fighter will be seeing an orthopedic specialist.

Cormier plans to see an orthopedist as well to ensure that this is not a recurring injury. He was quoted as saying: “I think this time I’m going to take a different approach. I think I’m going to have surgery on it and get it fixed, because I don’t want it to be recurring and then end up costing me later and later on down the line.” The Strikeforce champion kept it from his coaches when it happened and decided to fight through the injury, saying: “I don’t think my coaches picked up on it because I didn’t tell them. I just kept fighting.”

Barnett went to the hospital last night for the X-ray pictured right. He posted on Twitter this morning:

Here’s what happened in the first :30…still threw it though. Of course that might not have so wise LOL. twitpic.com/9nc4yk

— Josh Barnett (@JoshLBarnett) May 20, 2012

Barnett and Cormier were not the only fighters who suffered hand injuries. Virgil Zwicker who fought on last night’s undercard mentioned on his Twitter feed that he suffered a broken hand as well during his fight with Carlos Innocente.

yfrog.com/ki83kffj felt great in fight except for this

— Virgil Zwicker (@virgilzwicker) May 20, 2012