Gabriel Gonzaga needed a surgery to repair his broken hand following a unanimous decision loss to Stipe Miocic in January, and he will have to go under the knife again.
“Napao”, who suffered a hand injury in the first round of his heavyweight clash with Miocic at UFC on FOX 10 in Chicago, Ill., will have the plate and screws removed from his hand.
“I had a complicated fracture,” Gonzaga told MMAFighting.com. “My bone was completely broke and I had to put a plate with four screws. I didn’t lose any movements, but I have to go on surgery again to remove the plate and the screws or I can suffer another fracture.”
Gonzaga is allowed to train jiu-jitsu, but can’t use his hands yet.
“I’m training lightly,” he said, “waiting for my bone recovery to remove the plate.”
With an 11-7 record under the UFC banner, the Brazilian heavyweight expects to be cleared to return to the Octagon in six months, and wants to bounce back to the win column after a loss to Miocic.
“That’s how the sport is, one loss and you’re back to the end of the line,” he said. “I still don’t have any fight in mind (for my return), but I’m sure that I will be back with everything with my gym Team Link.
“We opened a new gym in Natick, Mass., so I will have a better structure to have more athletes helping me throughout my camp. We have a good relationship with Boxer MMA team and we do a good work together as well.”