With shattered nose, fuzzy memory, Akira Corassani scoffs at doubters while on the mend

When Akira Corassani answers the phone, he’s in surprisingly good spirits for a man who has just endured 30 injections into his nasal cavity.

“It was the worst f—king feeling I’ve ever felt in my life,” Corassani said.

Corassani (12-3 MMA, 3-0 UFC) was sitting in a plastic surgeon’s office, beginning the reconstruction process for his nose necessitated when Maximo Blanco (9-5-1 MMA, 1-2 UFC) landed an illegal knee during their matchup at this past Saturday’s The Ultimate Fighter 18 Finale event.

A few days removed from the bout, Corassani admitted he still doesn’t remember exactly how it all played out.

“I knew that that the first two minutes of the fight were going to be tough,” Corassani said. “I was prepared mentally, physically, spiritually because we knew he was going to swarm. The plan was to counter and pivot and weather the storm before turning the momentum and trying to knock him out.

“I remember that he took me down, and I popped right back up to my knees. I remember that all I was thinking was to protect my ribs, my body. If he had released me to punch, I would’ve stood up. But since he was holding me down, I was defending the knee to the body. From there after, I don’t remember anything until the locker room. Then it was like somebody hit me with cold water, and I was just like, ‘Where am I now?’”

Between those moments, a lot unfolded inside the cage. Referee Mario Yamasaki intervened after seeing the illegal knee delivered to a kneeling opponent, and a Nevada State Athletic Commission doctor ruled Corassani ineligible to continue (breaking your nose in five places and suffering a mild concussion will generally earn you that type of assessment). With Yamasaki deeming the blow an intentional foul, Corassani was ruled the winner by disqualification.

In the brief moments of recollection Corassani has during that entire process, he assumed he had suffered a knockout loss.

“I couldn’t really see anything,” Corassani said. “It felt like I was underwater somehow. The doctor came in and pressed on my nose, and I was just trying to get his hands away. I assumed I had just been knocked out. I honestly didn’t understand what was going on.

“You know when you were a teenager and had way too much to drink? It was like that. You don’t even know what’s going on. You think you’re on another planet. The next thing I remembered, I’m sitting in the back and somebody walked up and gave me two checks. Then I think I started talking about taxes or something. It was so surreal.”

Corassani’s critics immediately took to social media to accuse him of somehow faking his way into a disqualification victory. It’s a notion the 31-year-old Swedish fighters laughs at but can actually understand.

“It’s the shot you don’t see that gets you,” Corassani said. “But I never, ever said I couldn’t continue. I don’t think anybody ever even asked me that. I didn’t even know I was in a cage at that point.

“I don’t read too many comments, but I have Twitter, and I saw people posting a lot of BS. But I understand people. When you’re not in there, you don’t get it. I’m not mad at them. They go to a tae bo class or cardio kickboxing and think that’s what we’re doing. When you see it on TV, that’s one thing. When you’re in there feeling it, it’s something different.”

For now, Corassani will wait and see what comes next. Following the injections, his nose has been manually reset, and a follow-up appointment next week will determine if it’s healing properly. If so, he thinks it will take a month or so before he’ll be cleared.

When he comes back, he wouldn’t be opposed to finishing what he started with Blanco, but Corassani admits he’d prefer to face someone a little higher up the ranks. Really, just anything other than being back in that chair.

“If my nose wasn’t broken, we could do it all over again next week,” Corassani said.

For complete coverage of the The Ultimate Fighter 18 Finale, check out the UFC Evengs section of the site.