- BJJ brown belt Amanda Mazza snapped her own forearm while finishing a rear naked choke at Cage Fury BJJ 15.
- At first, she genuinely believed she’d broken her opponent’s jaw before realising the gruesome sound came from her own arm.
- On the Jits and Giggles podcast, Amanda Mazza explains breaking her own arm in detail, describing how she stayed eerily calm and felt no real pain until the hospital.
- A surgeon later told her it was a “perfect storm” injury caused by her choke pressure and her opponent pushing into the elbow at the wrong angle.
- Despite calling 2024 her “year of injuries,” she’s already focused on rehab, her team, and getting back to Jiu-Jitsu competition.
From Dominant Back Take To Disaster At Cage Fury BJJ 15
By the time the snap echoed around the venue, it looked like the match was already done.
BJJ brown belt Amanda Mazza had hit a clean duck under, taken the back, and sunk a rear naked choke during her bout with Emily Hansen at Cage Fury BJJ 15. On the broadcast, it appeared to be a textbook finish: back control secured, hooks in, arm under the chin – or so everyone thought.
Then came the noise.
Mazza’s arm visibly jolted as she squeezed the choke, forcing her to release the hold. Both athletes looked confused. The referee initially let the match continue because, from the outside, nothing about the position screamed “catastrophic injury.”
Seconds later, Mazza clutched her arm and the seriousness of the situation kicked in as medical staff were waved in.
At the time, fans and commentators could only guess what had happened. It wasn’t until later, when Amanda Mazza explained breaking her own arm in interviews and on a podcast, that the picture really came into focus.
“I Thought I Snapped Her Jaw”: Mazza’s First Reaction
On the Jits and Giggles podcast, Mazza admitted that her first thought wasn’t about herself at all – it was about her opponent’s jaw.
I literally thought I snapped her jaw
– Amanda Mazza on Jits and Giggles –
She was squeezing with everything she had, and when the sound rang out, it made sense to assume the pressure had landed across the jaw rather than under the chin. In that instant, Mazza was less worried about winning the match and more terrified she’d seriously injured another athlete.
Only when she tried to adjust her grip did the reality hit. She felt something shift inside her forearm and realized, with a kind of grim clarity, that the damage was hers.
From the outside, it’s a brutal BJJ injury highlight. From her perspective, it was a slow-motion mental pivot: from “I’ve hurt her” to “No, this is my arm.”
How Amanda Mazza Explains Breaking Her Own Arm And Staying Composed
The most striking part of the story isn’t just that Amanda Mazza explains breaking her own arm – it’s how she describes her own reaction.
She told the podcast she stayed oddly calm on the mat and in the aftermath. There was no screaming, no dramatic scene.
Her boss, physical therapist JJ Thomas from Primal Physical Therapy, was there with her team and immediately started assessing the injury, but Mazza herself barely reacted. Her composure actually unsettled people more than if she’d panicked.
I literally was not in pain until we got to the hospital
– Amanda Mazza –
That detail – no real pain until the hospital – sums up a lot about how she processes adversity.
Even as she absorbed that she’d suffered a serious break in the middle of a match she was winning, BJJ brown belt Amanda Mazza was already slipping into problem-solving mode: talking to coaches, talking to medical staff, trying to understand what had just happened.
Later, when Amanda Mazza explains breaking her own arm publicly, the emphasis is less on the gore, more on the mindset. She talks about frustration, sure, but she also talks about perspective: better her arm than her opponent’s jaw, better a fixable fracture than a career-ending injury.
Surgeon’s ‘Perfect Storm’ Verdict On The Amanda Mazza Rear Naked Choke Injury
Once the scans came back, the verdict was harsh: a complete fracture of the radius in her forearm. Mazza needed surgery and ended up with a titanium plate running almost the length of the bone.
According to her surgeon – who also works with UFC athletes – this wasn’t a case of reckless technique or sloppy positioning.
It was, in his words, a “perfect storm” situation. Mazza’s choke was generating serious squeezing pressure, and at the exact same moment, Hansen pushed up into the elbow line, effectively turning the arm into a lever against itself. Without that extra push, he told her, the arm probably wouldn’t have broken.
That explanation slots the Amanda Mazza rear naked choke injury into a small but growing category of freak accidents in grappling – like buggy choke self-injuries or ankles popping from awkward triangle adjustments.
The intent isn’t to scare people off Jiu-Jitsu, but it is a reminder that when force, timing and angles all misalign, the athlete applying the submission isn’t automatically safe.
For Mazza, hearing that it was a “perfect storm” provided a strange kind of reassurance: she hadn’t done anything wildly wrong; she’d just been on the wrong side of physics that night.
A Year Of Injuries For Mazza
If this were a one-off, it would already be a wild story. But as Amanda Mazza explains, breaking her own arm, she also reveals that 2024 has been, in her words, a “year of injuries.”
Before Cage Fury BJJ 15, she’d already broken her hand in wrestling practice and suffered a nasty finger dislocation just weeks earlier.
Despite all that, the official result of the bout went down as a loss, even though she was in a dominant position when the arm went.
She’s admitted she wondered if it should’ve been ruled a no contest, but ultimately she’s more relieved that her opponent walked away unhurt than she is bitter about the L on her record.
The projected recovery window is six to eight weeks, which many people have told her “isn’t even a long time.” For someone who lives on the mats, it feels like an eternity – but she’s leaning hard on her team at Web MMA and the staff at Primal Physical Therapy to stay ahead of schedule physically and mentally.
In the end, the way Amanda Mazza explains breaking her own arm says more about her than the slow-mo replay ever could. It’s equal parts horror story, technical lesson, and mindset clinic – the kind of tale only Jiu-Jitsu can produce, and one she clearly intends to turn into fuel rather than a full stop on her competitive career.
