Kamaru Usman Recovering From Hernia Surgery
The newly crowned welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman is unlikely to defend his title anytime soon. After winning a unanimous decision at UFC 235, Usman was noticeably limping in his exit from the cage, but it is not his legs that will be keeping him from action. The champion underwent surgery for a hernia on Tuesday and will need to take some time to recover before he makes his first title defense.
MMA Junkie wrote that after the surgery, Usman made a post on social media afterwards saying that the surgery was not like his previous knee surgery’s “at all”. Usman injured his foot during his fight with Tyron Woodley and made claims of knee issues that plagued his performance but said once those injuries are clear we could see a different version of Usman as champion.
However, Usman’s manager told MMA Junkie that the knee issue Usman mentioned in the past does not currently require surgery. Oddly enough, Kamaru Usman is now the second UFC champion in recent months that needed to have hernia surgery as Robert Whittaker was removed from his bout against Kelvin Gastelum the day of their fight at UFC 234. Thankfully, Usman’s surgery was not emergency surgery like Whittaker’s and hopefully will not add to the UFC’s list of interim title situations.
The standard recovery time for the surgery Usman had is typically four weeks before patients can return to any physical activity. If anything can be said about competitive athletes, especially in combat sports it is that they are not “standard” and usually look to move forward when something like surgery happens. Usman reported the day after that surgery went well and that he was already doing physical rehab.
Surgery went well yesterday and today I’m already in Physical Therapy. Thank you all for the support and well wishes 🙏🏾🙏🏾 #bebacksoon #thechamp
— KAMARU USMAN (@USMAN84kg) March 13, 2019
Not surprising for someone that fought their way to a title seemingly with one functioning leg.
