UFC
UFC QUOTABLES: Cain Velasquez discusses his shoulder injury, hopeful for only six month layoff
Dec 31, 2010 - 8:00:10 PM UFC QUOTABLES: Cain Velasquez discusses his shoulder injury, hopeful for only six month layoff

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

"[The injury] happened in the Brock fight. After the 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.' We tried to do it without surgery so I could get back as quickly as possible, but that didn't work, so we'll do the other stuff. ... I thought I was doing the right thing by trying to get the rehab done and get healthy that way and go ahead with training. I thought I was doing a good thing. 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. It's a while, but hopefully I can come back 100 percent. It is what it is. I need surgery, and that's it. ... When I'm ready, I'll come back, and I'll fight."

-UFC Heavyweight Champ Cain Velasquez discusses his injury during a pre-UFC 125 fan Q&A in Las Vegas (transcribed by MMAJunkie.com).

Penick's Analysis: There is some question about six months being too optimistic with a shoulder injury, but hopefully that's all it's going to be. If he's able to return to action in six months, he should be able to fight in August or December. If an August return is in the cards and Junior Dos Santos wins a fight in the interim, the fight that was supposed to be coming this spring would be perfect for the UFC's return to Brazil at the end of that month. Clearly he tried to take care of this without needing the lengthy layoff and it just wasn't in the cards, but hopefully he doesn't suffer any further setbacks, as fans will want to see him back in the cage as soon as possible.