Jan Blachowicz never wants to pull out of a fight, but he had no choice but to delay his upcoming meeting with Aleksandar Rakic after a terrifying injury that left him without any feeling on one side of his body.
According to the former UFC light heavyweight champion the problem occurred naturally. The pain simply showed up in his neck one morning and progressively got worse throughout the day during training.
“I wake up [on] one of the Mondays, and I feel a pain in my neck,” Blachowicz explained to MMA Fighting. “I think maybe I just slept bad, and that’s why I felt the pain. In the gym, we did some drills, and I took one shot on my guard, and I felt a really hard pain in my neck, and I cannot feel my left hand and left side of my body.
“It was completely off, paralyzed. Then I think, it’s not a normal pain. There’s worse. It’s worse. I visit the doctor and have an MRI. I discovered that there was something [a disc] inside my neck which puts pressure on the nerve. This is why my left side .”
felt so numb.
The pain in his neck and temporary paralysis was a terrifying moment for Blachowicz.
“It was scary,” he said. You don’t even know what has happened. You can’t move your left hand. For me, it was an odd feeling. A new thing, a scary thing.”
After an initial examination combined with the results of the MRI, Blachowicz was injected with medicine to help relieve the pressure on his spine, which in turn returned all of the feeling to his extremities.
Blachowicz thanked the staff for their quick care. He was also thankful to avoid surgery on his neck because that would be a much more involved procedure, not to mention the time it would have kept him sidelined.
” The doctor stated that we would see him after three weeks [if you need surgery],” Blachowicz recalled. If rehabilitation is successful, we won’t require surgery. If it doesn’t help, we’re going to have to do some surgery, but I’m a lucky guy. There is no surgery. Just rehabilitation and medicine.
“They gave me some medicine, they put in my neck some medicine, four weeks of rehabilitation and I was ready to start my training again for 100 percent. Although I am able to train using that technique, sparring is not necessary. It’s all pads and bags, bike, or running some similar. After four weeks of light training, and then four weeks of rehabilitation I was back at the gym. I began sparring and all things at 100 percent. Now I’m healthy. I don’t feel pain, I feel good.”
While Blachowicz was able to return to training quickly after his neck injury, Blachowicz still believes he made the right decision by not facing Rakic in March when they were scheduled to headline UFC Columbus.
Chris Blachowicz at 38, has learned many things over the years about pushing his body to its limits. He knows that he has a lot at stake every time he competes so he doesn’t see the need to step foot into the octagon if he is going to be extremely compromised.
” In a few years I might have done everything for this fight. But now I am a bit older and a bit smarter,” Blachowicz stated. I cannot do things like that. After my UFC career, there is still life to do, living with my son and stuff like this so now first of all, I have to be healthy and then I can fight.
” I will not put my health at risk by doing this. First of all, I need to be healthy and then I can do the fights.”
Blachowicz was able to recover from his injuries and receive treatment. He’s now back at training camp in preparation for the fight with Rakic, which will take place on May 14.
“Everything is OK. I don’t have to worry about that [injury],” Blachowicz said. “I don’t have to think about this. To keep my health, I continue to go for rehab. I spar, I’m doing jiu-jitsu, wrestling, everything I can do right now.”
