Priscila Cachoeira looking at surgery for ACL and meniscus tears suffered in loss to Shevchenko

Priscila Cachoeira’s rough UFC debut, it turns out, was even rougher than it appeared.

After being submitted by Valentina Shevchenko (15-3 MMA, 4-2 UFC) in the second round of a one-sided beating at Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 125, Cachoeira (8-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) is now looking at surgery on her right knee to repair ACL and meniscus tears that appear to have occurred early in the flyweight co-headliner.

The information was confirmed to MMAjunkie by Cachoeira’s manager, Tiago Okamura, and coach Gilliard Parana after an initial report by MMAFighting.com.

“The first time they engaged, she took a wrong step and her knee went out of place,” Okamura told MMAjunkie. “We didn’t know how bad the damage was. We don’t know if it happened there, right away, but her knee was already pretty bad. Then she held Valentina in her guard, which may have made it worse.”

Okamura says the team remained in the hospital until 7 a.m. this morning and an MRI confirmed the tears. While a date for surgery is still to be set with Dr. Marcio Tannure, Okamura says doctors initially estimate it will be from six to eight months until she can train properly.

“It was quite serious,” Okamura said. “Unfortunately, right away, she was in no condition to defend herself or do anything. The fight wasn’t supposed to have happened the way it did, but unfortunately this happened.”

Coach Parana, who posted a message on his Instagram page firing back at critics and saying how proud he was of “Pedrita,” agrees that, regardless of the final outcome, we would have seen a different fight at Mangueirinho Gymnasium in Belem, Para, had his pupil been fit.

“She was truly a warrior,” Parana said. “She got hurt early in the fight and then fought almost two entire rounds. This girl is different. She’s special. You’ll see her comeback. She’ll be back at 100 percent, and everyone will see the real ‘Pedrita.’

“Maybe she would have lost either way to Valentina, even at 100 percent, because Valentina is a top pound-for-pound fighter. But it would have been a better fight. The knee ended up being a big issue.”

Essa é minha guerreira , lutou dois rotunda com menisco e o cruzado ferrado , chegando no rio vai fazer cirurgia foram dois passos e duas falseadas no joelho e ainda assim não pediu pra parar porque aqui não existe isso de pedir irão atuar foi até o limite pois ela não chegou até aqui entregando as lutas nas primeiras dores de golpes ou lesões , mais isso só entende quem é do nosso perfil mesmo !! 2017 foi a melhor atleta disparado no Brasil , liderou a categoria dela até entrar no UFC e pegou só a Valentina que ninguém queria pegar e olha que sei de nomes fortes que fugiram dessa luta , mais aqui é PRVT e sempre vamos aceitar o desafio é se der um revés vamos atrás de melhorar assim como já fiz com jessica vo fazer com @pedritaprvtufc podem esperar !! Já já os mesmos que criticaram vão elogiar e os invejosos vão se calar com nosso sucesso , não estamos aqui à toa sabemos oque estamos fazendo e qual é nosso caminho percorrido !! Vamos com tudo recuperar após a cirurgia e depois voltar ao topo porque só de estar no maior evento do mundo com certeza estamos no topo !! PRVT no UFC !! A saga continua !’ Doa a quem doer !! Ooossssssss @jessicammapro #prvt

A post shared by Gilliard Parana (@gilliardparana) on Feb 4, 2018 at 11:16am PST

At the end of the fight, which Shevchenko entered as a 10-1 favorite, referee Mario Yamasaki was under fire for allowing the fight to go on as long as it did. Parana, on his end, says he would have understood had Yamasaki decided to stop it but is also OK with his call.

“I think he had his reasons not to stop it,” Parana said. “He knows what he’s doing and ‘Pedrita’ was active. He could have stopped it, too. Both decisions were plausible, the way I see it.”

On their end, though, the coach didn’t consider throwing the towel.

“We never thought about quitting and we never will,” Parana said. “It’s not part of our way of doing things. The ref is there to stop it, and if he doesn’t, we won’t be the ones doing it.”

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 125, check out the UFC Events section of the site.