Former UFC flyweight title challenger and current No. 1-ranked 125-pounder Joseph Benavidez was forced out of his first mixed martial arts (MMA) bout due to injury, but that all changed two weeks ago when Benavidez suffered a knee injury during preparation for his scheduled bout against Ben Nguyen at this weekend’s UFC Fight Night from New Zealand.
Benavidez tore his ACL and was forced to undergo surgery to repair the damage, and said that the injury was simply a freak accident and occured without any contact in the practice room:
“No contact. I was sparring, I was on my third round and I was literally steps away from anybody and I just pushed off, when you push off for a punch your foot is kind of pointed out to a certain degree, then you step it forward as you go and it didn’t step,” Benavidez said. “My hip and my knee just kind of went and my foot was somehow planted in the mat.
“I guess it’s the same way a football player would tear it when they would try to make a cut. That’s kind of what happened to me. My knee and my hip just kind of went and my knee buckled down.”
He then stated that when his knee initially buckled he didn’t feel any pain and continued on with his sparrign session. Benavidez later found out something was wrong and took a trip tot he doctor’s office, where he received the bad news:
“It didn’t hurt or pop or anything. It was really weird,” Benavidez explained. “Got back up and was like ‘that was weird’ and my coach was like ‘what happened?’. I was like I don’t really know but I felt fine, my knee felt good, I was bending it and I was like all right I got up again.
“Got up again, literally exploded off it again and it just crumbled again.”
A typical ACL injury will keep an athlete out for the better part of a year, however, Benavidez could be looking at a more lengthy layoff as doctors found even more damage to his knee once they were in surgery:
“I tore my ACL was the injury and then when I went in for surgery, they had to fix my LCL, my meniscus and another tendon on the back,” Benavidez revealed. “It was all just thrashed, too and they said it could have been old stuff. So they fixed it all up. Recovery, it’s challenge. That first week was one of the most challenging of my life, my career
“It was a little different because I had my ACL initially and then once they went in and clinically test me and cut me open, they saw everything else that was wrong. So honestly, I think it’s the same long term, it’s a little bit different short term. My first six weeks is a little harder than if it was just my ACL.”
Sports medicine has significantly advanced over the past few years, thus making a return from an ACL injury in less than a year a lot more doable. UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor suffered the same injury during his fight with Max Holloway back in 2013 and was able to return to the Octagon in just nine months.
Benavidez said that he expects to be back in action within a 10 month time frame:
“[My doctor] told recovery coming back, he wouldn’t want me to fight for 10 months,” Benavidez said. “He said that’s just being careful, making sure everything’s good. The hardest part is going to be that six or seven month mark when you actually feel like there’s nothing wrong but when you feel that, that’s when you still need like two more months.
“Hopefully he was shooting me long just in case things get better than that. He told me 10 months.”
Benavidez also will be taking advantage of the UFC’s new Performance Institute in Las Vegas with no cost to him as the promotion will be handling all of the financials so he can focus on getting back into the Octagon:
“We have physical therapy there now so any fighter with an injury in the UFC can come to Vegas and get treatment everyday. Fighters in Vegas can go in. Your back, your ankle, anything, then you go in get [physical therapy] with a world-class physical therapist who worked 10 years at the Olympic training center,” Benavidez explained.
“I’m in good hands. I get to go there everyday. That place is incredible. They’re going to give me meals everyday and then [the physical therapist] is going to work on my everyday and she’s literally done thousands of ACL [injuries]. It’s really cool. It’s cool to see that Performance Institute already play a role in people’s lives. Like I saw a ton of people in there. I won’t mention any names. That wasn’t treatment any of us could get, you were just kind of left on your own if you had an injury. Now with all the insurance that came in a few years ago and now all this, it’s incredible.”
This is unfamiliar territory for Benavidez as he has never been held out-of-action from an injury this significant before, but is taking everything day-by-day until he is ready to return to his fighting ways:
“It’s tough. I’m doing what I can do and concentrating on that,” Benavidez said. “It’s literally a day-by-day, night-by-night thing. Get in bed, hopefully have some good sleep tonight, wake up, hopefully it’s a good time today. Other than that, doing the best I can.”
H/T FOX Sports for the transcriptions
