John Dodson issues statement following near-death accident involving his family

Former UFC title challenger John Dodson has provided an update after he and his family were involved in a near-death automobile accident.

Dodson (21-12 MMA), who was let go by the UFC shortly following his unanimous decision loss to Merab Dvalishvili in August of 2020, was set to make his return to the cage on July 30 at an XMMA event in Greenville, South Carolina.

However, due to a serious automobile accident that involved Dodson’s whole family, that unfortunately is no longer be the case.

Ricky Kottenstette, who is the working manager of John Dodson, was first to report the tragic news that ‘The Magician’ and his family were involved in a horrific crash while on route to Texas for vacation.

Now just hours after the accident was made public, Dodson has taken to Instagram where he shared the following information regarding the crash.

“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 Hazzard light, no flares and no other warning to let us know. I hit the car and we rolled.”

John Dodson continued:

“I don’t know how many times (it rolled) 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.”

John Dodson competed with the UFC for nine years (2011-2020), this after winning the TUF 14 bantamweight tournament. ‘The Magician’ went on to challenge for the promotions flyweight title on two occasions, but ultimately fell short in his efforts to dethrone then-champion Demetrious Johnson.