UFC bantamweight contender, Casey Kenney has revealed a detached tendon in his hand suffered during his training camp for his most recent Octagon walk against Song Yadong required double surgery, as he targets a promotional return at the close of summer.
Kenney, a former feature of LFA and a product of Dana White’s Contender Series – has been sidelined from the Octagon since August of last year where he suffered a close, split decision loss against Chinese upstart, Yadong.
The loss came as Kenney’s second consecutively for the first time in his Octagon tenure, after he round himself on the wrong side of another split judging loss, this time against former two-time bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz back in March of last year.
Casey Kenney holds a win over former flyweight title challenger, Ray Borg
5-3 from his eight-fight UFC tenure, Kenney has managed notable victories over Ray Borg, Manny Bermudez, Louis Smolka, and Alateng Heili, and recent UFC London winner, Nathaniel Wood during his stint with the promotion – with his sole other loss coming against the streaking Georgian wrestler, Merab Dvalishili.
Forced to the sidelines since his loss to Yadong, Kenney revealed during a recent interview with LowKick MMA reporter, James Lynch, how double surgery to address a detached tendon in his finger has forced his absence.
“It was a pinky injury, I did it during the camp basically – for Song (Yadong),” Casey Kenney said. “The timeframe ended up causing two surgeries, and made it a little longer. There’s a scar tissue timeframe that you have, when you detach tendons in the hand. It is what it is, you know – I had a great fight with Song.”
As far as a potential October return is concerned, Kenney plans to leave the callouts to one side, and allow his management to discuss his next opponent with the UFC.
“I’m kinda leaving it up to them (management), I’m gonna see who is available for the timeframe that I wanna come back,” Casey Kenney explained. “It has been a while, and I don’t know who is booked, but if they’re (the UFC) all booking in for October now, hopefully, I get a call here soon, see what happens, and get back to fight camp.”