(Brown smashes up Jordan Mein at UFC on FOX 7 in April. / Photo via Getty)
By Elias Cepeda
Last week, UFC welterweight contender Matt Brown herniated two discs in his back and was forced to pull out of his scheduled fight against Carlos Condit this Saturday at UFC on Fox 9. As he explained to CagePotato, he initially hoped a cortisone shot would help him feel well enough to fight, but that didn’t pan out.
Now, he’s benched from most physical activity for a month other than his therapy exercises. The good news is that if rehab goes well, Brown could be back training full contact in two months.
“The prognosis for me is basically that for one month I’ve got nothing but rehab. There’s no bending over to pick anything up and I can’t have any impact in any shape or form. No running. Nothing like any of those types of things,” Brown says.
“After two months, assuming rehab goes well, I’ll get a second cortisone shot and should be able to go full contact again.”
If Brown does his physical therapy to a ‘T’, he says he’s told that he should be able to avoid surgery on his back. Despite being so badly hurt, Brown says that he couldn’t bring himself to pull out of the fight on his own.
“I knew in my heart I wanted to do it,” he says.
“In my head I knew it probably wasn’t the best idea but I couldn’t get myself to say it out loud. I needed [my family and coaches] to push me to pull out of the fight.”
Brown admits that watching or even talking about fights right now is a bit of a bummer for him, given that he was so close to a huge fight and now can’t even move without pain. He doesn’t allow for self-pity to set in, however.
“I can’t change it so I just need to go about my way and enjoy the fights,” he says of the UFC on Fox 9 card.
As for when he does return to fighting, Brown’s immediate target hasn’t changed.
“Carlos Condit is still on my mind,” he says. “I definitely want to still fight him if that works out.”