Kyle Daukaus reveals multiple broken bones in his face following brutal knockout at UFC Austin

Kyle Daukaus is resting and recovering after undergoing surgery to repair damage done to his face from a brutal knockout loss to Roman Dolidze at UFC Austin.

On Tuesday, Daukaus revealed the extent of his injuries after a knee strike from Dolidze ended their fight at just 1:13 into the opening round.

“During the fight, I got kneed, obviously,” Daukaus said in a post on his Instagram. “As soon as the knee landed, it kind of broke my face in three places.

“The scans I got, I had two orbital fractures, and I think I had a fracture in my eye socket as well underneath.”

According to Daukaus, he stayed in the hospital most of the night in Austin before making the decision to return home to Philadelphia for surgery.

Just days removed from the procedure, Daukaus is still dealing with a massive amount of swelling, but everything is stabilized after multiple plates were put in place to help heal the broken bones.

“Surgery went well, it was last Thursday,” he said. “I got three plates put in unfortunately in my face. I got three plates on my actual face, and then I have one underneath my eyeball, too, but the one underneath my eyeball isn’t really a plate. It just kind of molds to my bone, so it will eventually become one as opposed to the ones that are actually screwed in my face and my cheekbone. Things like this happen.”

While the loss and subsequent surgery was the last thing Daukaus wanted to endure after picking up a submission win his previous outing, the 29-year-old middleweight doesn’t expect to be sidelined as long as he first expected.

Daukaus isn’t setting a timeline on when he might return, but it appears for now he won’t be forced to sit out the rest of the year.

“I have about six to eight weeks of recovery, the doctor said, which is far quicker than I thought it was going to be,” he said. “I thought it was going to be out at least a year.

“Looking at the bright side of it, it’s six to eight weeks until pretty much full contact, so it’s something that’s exciting in a way. But again, I’m in no rush to get back in there and get to hard training.”