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WSOF President Ray Sefo says they had no knowledge of Ryan Ford's broken arm prior to WSOF 14
Oct 12, 2014 - 9:45:14 PM WSOF President Ray Sefo says they had no knowledge of Ryan Ford's broken arm prior to WSOF 14

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Ryan Ford's revelation that he broke his arm prior to World Series of Fighting 14, yet fought Jake Shields anyway, was unknown by WSOF officials, at least according to a statement from WSOF President Ray Sefo.

"Neither I nor any of my staff at World Series of Fighting had any prior knowledge of Ryan Ford's condition until he went on the record about it after last night's fight," Sefo said in a statement made via Sherdog.com. "Like all of the other fighters who competed last night, Ryan went through all of the steps necessary to receive clearance by the athletic commission to fight. Had we been aware that Ryan was suffering from an arm injury, we would have immediately pulled the plug on his matchup with Jake Shields and secured another suitable opponent for Jake."

"As both a fighter and a promoter, I take the health of our fighters very seriously, and I am also sensitive to the needs of fighters to support their families with the income they make from competing. Financial needs can always be addressed and worked out, but health is something that no one can afford to play with, so I sincerely hope that Ryan and the other athletes on our roster learn a lesson from this, and will be 100 percent transparent with us and disclose to us any pre-existing medical conditions in the future."

Penick's Analysis: Fighters obviously don't believe they can come to promoters and expect any help if they have to pull out of a fight. However, promoters can't stand for these types of things, same with regulators. If they didn't know about it, Ford must have done a hell of a job hiding it, or the commission didn't do an adequate job making sure there weren't any lingering issues. Fighters are going to try to sneak things past regulators on a constant basis, and perhaps there needs to be a way for more diligence and follow up on things that fighters put down on their medical questionnaires.