Two-time UFC title challenger John Dodson was involved in a serious accident that has postponed his return to competition.
On Saturday, Dodson’s manager Ricky Kottenstette posted on social media that Dodson and his family were involved in an automobile accident Friday evening.
According to Kottenstette, Dodson and his family were released from the hospital Saturday morning.
Kottenstette provided further information on the situation on a GoFundMe page set up to support the Dodsons. In the post, Kottenstette describes the incident as a “near death accident with the whole family inside the vehicle” that occurred when they were traveling to Texas for a vacation.
Dodson has been forced to withdraw from his upcoming bantamweight on July 30 that was to take place at an XMMA event in Greenville, S.C. The fight would have been Dodson’s first since parting ways with the UFC this past September.
In 17 UFC appearances, Dodson went 10-7 and twice challenged Demetrious Johnson for the UFC flyweight championship. He lost three of his past four bouts competing for the promotion in the 135-pound division.
See Kottenstette’s full GoFundMe statement below:
We have started this go fund me to help John Dodson and family. The Dodson’s were headed to Texas on vacation to visit family when they were involved in a near death accident with the whole family inside the vehicle. They were all released from the hospital this morning but will have a rough month of recovery and financial hardship ahead. They have totaled their family vehicle and unfortunately John will no longer be able to fight in his upcoming July 30th bout. We are asking for assistance to help them with their medical bills, financial assistance from being out of work and travel back to New Mexico. Let’s show these guys some [love].
UPDATE: Dodson has provided an update on his status via Facebook and also shared more details and photos of the accident, which he says involved at least three other vehicles, including an 18-wheeler.
Just letting everyone know we’re all alive and no one is seriously injured. The car we hit was left in the middle of the highway after that person hit an 18 wheel and another car crashed into it as well. He had no Hazzards light, no flares and no other warning to let us know. I hit the car and we rolled. I don’t know how many times but luckily the cables in the median stopped us from rolling onto traffic going the other direction. The guy fled on foot after he saw my vehicle rolled.. I gotta thank infinite for the design of the suv cuz it protected my family and I from dying. We’re just lucky no one died and we can live to see another day and be reminded on how luck we are. Life is short and you don’t know when it’s gonna end so enjoy it while you can.
If you guys wanna help us out there is a gofundme account that one of my friends have created to help us out since I’m outta my fight for July 30th. Thank you everyone for checking up on us and we’re just lucky.
