(Thumbs up for morphine.)
Dana White told MMAJunkie today that the UFC’s light heavyweight belt may be put on ice for a good portion of 2010 as champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua recovers from a recent knee surgery to repair an injury incurred during his fight with Lyoto Machida at UFC 113 last month.
"He just got out of the hospital; it was a successful surgery," White said. "He had the surgery in [Los Angeles], and he’s going to be doing all his therapy in (Las) Vegas. So he’ll be in Vegas for the next five weeks."
Despite reports by MMA Live that the Universidade de Luta fighter had incurred the injury training for the bout, the UFC president asserts that the injury definitely happened during the fight.
Rua first injured his anterior cruciate ligament training for his fight with Forrest Griffin at UFC 76, and he blew out the ligament during the fight. The injury required surgery to correct and after rehabbing the lame leg for several months, he completely blew out his ACL while training. Another surgery and rehab regimen kept him on the sidelines until his UFC 93 bout with Mark Coleman nearly a year and a half after the fight with Griffin.
Hopefully his recovery goes more smoothly than the last time around or we may see an interim title bout or two before we see the Brazilian champion back in the Octagon. It would also be a shame to have him come back too early and put on a lackluster performance like he did against Griffin and Coleman, especially as a champion.
Unless your last name is Couture, ring rust can be a real bitch.
Just to give you some perspective on how long Rua could potentially be out of commission: UFC lightweight Joe Lauzon suffered a complete tear of his ACL in his Fight Night bout with Jeremy Stephens last February and didn’t fight for 11 months. Granted, Lauzon had a complete graft done to his ACL using a cadaver ligament, but chances are if Rua’s knee is as unstable and injury prone as it is, he may have required a similar surgery.
Although White’s statement that Shogun is only doing five weeks of therapy may be an indicator that the injury was a minor one or that it’s possibly not even related to his repeatedly troublesome joint, it could also be a red herring. In any case, Rashad Evans will likely have to wait for his promised shot at Rua’s belt until the champion recovers.
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Cagepotato Comments
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commentsive had the same surgery done on my right knee. it was a grueling process and due to being sidelined for so long i ended up putting on 40 - 50 pounds. the post surgery 24 hours was one of the more painful things i have ever experienced as well. and injury like that is a life changer and his knee will likely never be 100%
Either way, total bummer for Shogun, and I say it as a Machida fan. And while I'm sure they're putting together plans for an interim title match, why not do the opposite? Let the LHW ranks sort themselves out for a little while. Right now, I think that despite his loss to Mauricio, Machida is still the #2 LHW in UFC. So while I understand that he's got no shot at an interim title, coming off the loss of the actual belt, who else really has a shot? Evans, sure, but who would he fight?
By the way, if Anderson Silva ever wanted to stick his nose into the LHW ranks, this would be the time to do it. The number one headband is effectively vacated, and the number two headband won't be able to fight anybody.
I feel like he was just starting to get his sea-legs back under him and he was about to go on the warpath.
awesome.
rashad as interm? cant wait.. -_- sigh
Its like chucks hang lose or a diaz in cuffs.
To put this in perspective, Wes Welker of the New England Patriots injured his knee the first week of January and he is on track to return to the Patriots by the season opener. 9 months. I didn't start doing jiu-jitsu again until 9 months post surgery. You need to get the quad/hamstring back to full strength or you risk injuring the new ACL. An ACL injury is nothing to screw around with. I speak from experience.