Losing one of his arms did not stop Joshua Rector from defying the odds, as the amateur heavyweight mixed martial artist secured a brutal first round knockout, marking his first career stoppage victory.
Joshua Rector lost his left arm in Iraq
A former US Army soldier, Joshua Rector lost one arm during deployment in Iraq when a Humvee he was onboard rolled over and the turret armor sliced his arm. In 2014, his left forearm had to be amputated and was medically retired from service.
Nonetheless, “The Wrecking Ball” sought for a new challenge and started a career in mixed martial arts. Having trained in jiu-jitsu since 2009, he started his MMA journey as an amateur.
After four submission victories in his first four fights, Rector had suffered four back to back losses but on 18th June, bounced back strong with scoring his first career TKO victory over Colby Carter at a Fight Hard MMA event, taking his amateur record to 5-4.
Watch Rector’s remarkable feat in the video below, courtesy of Fight Hard MMA’s YouTube.
The sport of MMA has seen one-armed fighters making the impossible, possible a number of times in the past. One of the most popular in the sport is Nick Newell, the Bellator MMA lightweight who was born with a congenital amputation but started his career as a professional and has a record of 16-4.
Back in January this year, Brazil’s Marney Maxx (5-4), who is also an amputee, set another example in the cage, with a brutal first round head-kick KO of Deivid Costa at Demo Fight 11.