To make it to the news conference after his first Ultimate Fighting Championship win, Cung Le needed a wheelchair. The cut above his eye required stitches, and he’d bruised a foot so badly kicking his opponent in the head that he was worried it was broken.

As he made his way to his microphone on crutches, he recalls, he already knew his boss was pissed that he looked so obviously hurt. When Dana White, president of the mixed martial arts promoter, saw Le wheeling to the news conference, Le remembers him saying, “What the f---?”