Junior dos Santos is expected to have surgery Thursday to fix a “very complicated” injury sustained in a recent heavyweight clash with Yorgan de Castro at Eagle FC, the fighter revealed on social media.
“Cigano” injured his right shoulder during the third round in his main event fight on May 20, Florida. The fighter stated that he suffered a partial tear of the tendon, a labrum tear and sprain to his shoulder. The 38-year-old heavyweight needs to have surgery to avoid dislocating it in training in the future.
The plan is for Dos Santos to undergo surgery in Brazil on Thursday with long-time physicians Rickson Moraes, and Maria Bogea. Dos Santos will be able to resume his training within six months. He plans to compete in the beginning 2023..
“Sadly, [the injury] happened when it wasn’t supposed to, in the third round of a fight where I was feeling incredibly well and seeing everything clearly, avoiding all of his attacks,” dos Santos said in a video posted on his Instagram page Tuesday. “He didn’t touch my face. “He punched me once in round one, and twice in round two. But he didn’t touch my face. It was as simple as that.
” I was seeing everything, moving very well and touching him with an effective manner. I was really happy, so happy I didn’t want to expose myself too much going for the knockout or a takedown because it was all going so well. But things went wrong in the beginning of the third round [laughs] and my shoulder dislocated. And here we are, ready to take care of this and move on.”
The TKO loss due to injury put dos Santos back on the losing track in his first fight since leaving UFC. He went on a five-fight slide. The former UFC champion had only lost five times in 26 bouts prior to his current skid.
