If you build it, they will rehab.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has been plagued with injuries over the years, to the point where mixed martial arts (MMA) fans are pessimistic that each new bout will actually pass drug testing stay intact until fight night, thanks to instances like this.
And of course, this.
UFC President Dana White has heard your cries and rest assured, he and his team are working on it. In fact, ZUFFA breaks ground on a new rehab facility in June, where fighters will be held accountable for their therapy, as opposed to just sending them home with a Get Well Soon! card.
Transcribed by MMA Fighting:
"Injuries are going to happen. You're going to have injuries but you have to be so careful. The question becomes with Khabib, did he do all his therapy that he was supposed to do on his knee after surgery? Did he do all the right things? We're starting to get our ducks in a row and we're going to start fixing this. Here's what doesn't happen in football: if DeMarco Murray blows his knee out for the Dallas Cowboys, they don't just send him home and say, 'Hey, good luck, call us when you're healthy.' They make sure he's there doing his therapy, his rehab and everything else. That's what we're going to start doing with our fighters."
Nurmagomedov blew out his knee in 2014, then re-injured himself last month training for UFC 187.
"The Eagle" trains at American Kickboxing Academy (AKA), which already came under fire from White prior to his injury for "stone age" tactics. Probably because UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez is held together with duct tape and Popsicle sticks and can't take a dump without injuring himself.
Perhaps a new rehab center -- and constant monitoring -- can help alleviate some of those mishaps.
Time will tell.
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