Velasquez: Injury sucks, title fight can’t wait
Despite the surprising protests of top contender Junior Dos Santos, UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez insists his recent surgery for…
Despite the surprising protests of top contender Junior Dos Santos, UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez insists his recent surgery for a torn rotator cuff was not only a last resort but also completely necessary.
Velasquez said he’d support UFC officials if they feel the need to institute an interim belt while he’s on the sidelines. “The same thing happened when Brock was injured,” Velasquez told MMAjunkie.com at today’s pre-weigh-in Q&A session. “They fought for an interim (belt) … [The UFC] has to keep the fights going. You can’t can’t wait around half a year for fights. They fight all the time. It doesn’t offend me at all.”
“After the (Brock) fight, I felt fine. Later that night, my body starting cooling down, and my shoulder was jacked up. I knew something wasn’t right. I saw the doctor and got an MRI, and he said I had a torn rotator cuff. They said, ‘We’ll try to do rehab first. We’ll rehab it for six weeks and see how it’s going.’ I did that, and finally when the six weeks was up, we had another MRI. The muscle was still torn, so that said, ‘We’ve got to have surgery. The rehab didn’t help it.’
“It sucks. I definitely want to be as active as I can. I want to fight for the fans and everybody that wants to see me fight. I want to please you guys. It’s hard, but it’s part of the territory. People get hurt all the time. These things happen. You have to get surgery. This isn’t my first surgery, so you’ve just got to do it, do what the doctors say and get back as soon as possible.
“[My doctor] said with this injury and getting surgery on it and everything else, the recovery will probably be around six months.”