Despite initial assumptions that Jon Jones suffered a compound fracture of his left big toe during his UFC 159 title defense against Chael Sonnen, the injury was later determined to be a dislocation. (You know, kind of like how Miesha Tate didn’t actually get her arm snapped in half by Ronda Rousey, despite all visual evidence to the contrary.) Dr. Robert Klapper, Chief Orthopedic Surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, appeared on yesterday’s installment of UFC Tonight to explain Jones’s injury, and give his insight on the recovery process, which doesn’t sound so bad, considering how ugly things looked on Saturday.
“The rehab involves, number one, you put [the toe] back into place,” Klapper said. “Line it up again. Wash out the joint because there’s lots of bad bacteria on that mat, and you need to make sure there’s no infection. The rehabilitation is just let things scar down, which they will. Because there’s no fracture of the bone — it’s just a dislocation — in six weeks it’s healed, then you start range of motion and strengthening. Back to fighting, six to eight weeks.”
Despite initial assumptions that Jon Jones suffered a compound fracture of his left big toe during his UFC 159 title defense against Chael Sonnen, the injury was later determined to be a dislocation. (You know, kind of like how Miesha Tate didn’t actually get her arm snapped in half by Ronda Rousey, despite all visual evidence to the contrary.) Dr. Robert Klapper, Chief Orthopedic Surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, appeared on yesterday’s installment of UFC Tonight to explain Jones’s injury, and give his insight on the recovery process, which doesn’t sound so bad, considering how ugly things looked on Saturday.
“The rehab involves, number one, you put [the toe] back into place,” Klapper said. “Line it up again. Wash out the joint because there’s lots of bad bacteria on that mat, and you need to make sure there’s no infection. The rehabilitation is just let things scar down, which they will. Because there’s no fracture of the bone — it’s just a dislocation — in six weeks it’s healed, then you start range of motion and strengthening. Back to fighting, six to eight weeks.”
(And here’s Nelson choking out DaMarques Johnson in his UFC debut and not giving a damn about it one way or the other. / Photo by James Law for FightDay.com)
Replacing Nelson against Pyle at UFC 160 will be Rick Story, who most recently TKO’d Strikeforce/KOTC standout Quinn Mulhern at UFC 158 last month. Pyle is coming off a superb 2012 during which he scored first-round KO/TKOs of Ricardo Funch, Josh Neer, and James Head. Pyle vs. Story is expected to be on the FX portion of the 5/25 card.
(And here’s Nelson choking out DaMarques Johnson in his UFC debut and not giving a damn about it one way or the other. / Photo by James Law for FightDay.com)
Replacing Nelson against Pyle at UFC 160 will be Rick Story, who most recently TKO’d Strikeforce/KOTC standout Quinn Mulhern at UFC 158 last month. Pyle is coming off a superb 2012 during which he scored first-round KO/TKOs of Ricardo Funch, Josh Neer, and James Head. Pyle vs. Story is expected to be on the FX portion of the 5/25 card.
(…and from the looks of him, he might have food-poisoning as well. Photo via FightDay/UFC)
From Vitor Belfort to Paul Taylor to Sean Sherk to James Irvin, we’ve seen our share of injury-cursed UFC fighters over the years — and now it’s time to add one more name to this dubious list. It was announced yesterday that Manny Gamburyan has suffered an undisclosed training injury and will not be able to face Hacran Dias at UFC on FX 8 (May 18th; Jaraguá do Sul, Brazil). This marks the fourth fight that Gamburyan has had to pull out of since returning to the UFC in 2011. A quick recap…
– Following the WEC’s merger with the UFC, Gamburyan was scheduled to face Raphael Assuncao at UFC 128 in March 2011, but was forced out of the match with a back injury.
(…and from the looks of him, he might have food-poisoning as well. Photo via FightDay/UFC)
From Vitor Belfort to Paul Taylor to Sean Sherk to James Irvin, we’ve seen our share of injury-cursed UFC fighters over the years — and now it’s time to add one more name to this dubious list. It was announced yesterday that Manny Gamburyan has suffered an undisclosed training injury and will not be able to face Hacran Dias at UFC on FX 8 (May 18th; Jaraguá do Sul, Brazil). This marks the fourth fight that Gamburyan has had to pull out of since returning to the UFC in 2011. A quick recap…
– Following the WEC’s merger with the UFC, Gamburyan was scheduled to face Raphael Assuncao at UFC 128 in March 2011, but was forced out of the match with a back injury.
And keep in mind, Gamburyan’s quest to become the winner of TUF 5 in 2007 ended suddenly when he suffered a shoulder injury during his fight with Nate Diaz. I think it’s safe to say that Manny’s general practitioner knows who he is, bro.
Gamburyan will be replaced at UFC on FX 8 by Nik Lentz, who is 2-0 since dropping to featherweight, and most recently took a unanimous decision over Diego Nunes at UFC on FX: Belfort vs. Bisping.
(“It’s embarrassing, okay? Let’s just say I’ll be on penicillin for a while, and leave it at that.”)
As first reported by MMAFighting yesterday evening, UFC heavyweight Alistair Overeem will be unable to fight former champion Junior Dos Santos at UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot 2 (May 25th, Las Vegas), due to an undisclosed injury suffered in training. No word yet on the nature or severity of the injury, although it will reportedly require 4-5 weeks of recovery. [Update:Overeem has revealed that it was a slight tear in his quad muscle.]
As soon as news of the withdrawal broke, fellow UFC heavyweight Mark Hunttried to organize a twitter assault to claim the replacement spot against Dos Santos. However, UFC president Dana White suggested that Overeem vs. Dos Santos will simply be postponed to sometime in the summer. Ah well. Would have been nice to see this happen again.
(“It’s embarrassing, okay? Let’s just say I’ll be on penicillin for a while, and leave it at that.”)
As first reported by MMAFighting yesterday evening, UFC heavyweight Alistair Overeem will be unable to fight former champion Junior Dos Santos at UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot 2 (May 25th, Las Vegas), due to an undisclosed injury suffered in training. No word yet on the nature or severity of the injury, although it will reportedly require 4-5 weeks of recovery. [Update:Overeem has revealed that it was a slight tear in his quad muscle.]
As soon as news of the withdrawal broke, fellow UFC heavyweight Mark Hunttried to organize a twitter assault to claim the replacement spot against Dos Santos. However, UFC president Dana White suggested that Overeem vs. Dos Santos will simply be postponed to sometime in the summer. Ah well. Would have been nice to see this happen again.
Yes, one hundred and four. Triple digits, baby. That startling figure comes to us via MMAFighting.com researcher Steve Borchardt, who tallied up all the injury pullouts by UFC and Strikeforce fighters in 2012, and fed them all into this chronological spreadsheet. (Color key: Injuries to champions are in yellow, all other main event fighters are in red, and co-mainers are in teal. Also, “KO’d by sauna floor when cutting weight” really deserves its own color. An ugly brownish-orange, perhaps.)
We’re all reasonable men and women, right? We know that this explosion in high-profile injury withdrawals can’t really be explained by a “curse,” or bad luck, or terrible coincidence. Grueling training conditions — in which MMA fighters work all year round, scrapping against elite-level teammates rather than paid sparring dummies, executing body-motions that are specifically designed to blow out your knees — has to account for most of it.
But are there other explanations? When you look at all the injuries listed as “Undisclosed” on the chart, you can’t help but speculate…
Yes, one hundred and four. Triple digits, baby. That startling figure comes to us via MMAFighting.com researcher Steve Borchardt, who tallied up all the injury pullouts by UFC and Strikeforce fighters in 2012, and fed them all into this chronological spreadsheet. (Color key: Injuries to champions are in yellow, all other main event fighters are in red, and co-mainers are in teal. Also, “KO’d by sauna floor when cutting weight” really deserves its own color. An ugly brownish-orange, perhaps.)
We’re all reasonable men and women, right? We know that this explosion in high-profile injury withdrawals can’t really be explained by a “curse,” or bad luck, or terrible coincidence. Grueling training conditions — in which MMA fighters work all year round, scrapping against elite-level teammates rather than paid sparring dummies, executing body-motions that are specifically designed to blow out your knees — has to account for most of it.
But are there other explanations? When you look at all the injuries listed as “Undisclosed” on the chart, you can’t help but speculate…
Alternately, UFC fighters may have become more cautious about competing when their health is less than 100%. As lucrative opportunities outside of the UFC continue to shrink, it has become even more important for athletes to have a good showing every time they enter the Octagon. So perhaps a fighter who would have gritted his teeth in the past and fought through a minor injury would now decide to sit out until he recovers. It’s a business, after all.
Can the UFC brass can do anything to alleviate this problem in 2013? It’s hard to say. But considering that the loss of marquee fights can hurt their bottom line more than any other factor, you can bet that they’re racking their brains trying to figure it out.
