Injuries are in sports all over the world. They can come from anywhere depending what you did to get the injury. We all have seen injuries happen or seen how they play out with the athlete, but what makes MMA injuries different from others? Depending on the injury they recieve, it determines how long a fighter is out of competition or if their fighting career will come to an end.

Fighters are constantly getting injured but it’s no surprise because of the punishments they put their bodies through. Like every athlete after they compete they must rest their bodies and see if they have any injuries that they need to take care of before they can return. In MMA it is a little different if a fighter takes a certain injury those injuries may keep them from fighting at their full potential and end the fighter’s career short. In this case, a lot of fights that are scheduled to happen may not make it to the fight day. Therefore, MMA companies must always be ready to find replacements for the fighter who was pulled out of their scheduled fight.

Anderson “the spider” Silva was the former UFC middleweight champion. At that time, he held the most title defenses in UFC history. He was running through anyone they put in front of him; he looked unstoppable, showing great head movement, almost like Muhammad Ali. But July 6, 2013, his winning streak was broken as he was TKO and lost his title, but came back to fight the same man who took his title away from him. But this time it was different. In the second round of their rematch, Anderson threw a low kick to the leg and broke it. It was one of the worst injuries the MMA world had ever seen forcing him out of fighting.

Less than ten months after that, he made his return to the UFC January, 31 where he won by decision. Dominick Cruz was the best at Bantamweight class where his movement in the cage would freeze his opponents and he would pick them off one by one. With a tear in his ACL, Cruz would be out for four years causing him to lose the title because of the injury. He got surgery but his knee didn’t accept it and instead it ripped. He was set back nine months.

After four years of recovery he was set to make his return but this time tore his ACL in his other leg. After more years of being out, Cruz was finally healthy and ready to fight. They gave him a title fight off the bat against a man who was ruling the division like no other. They were set to fight June 17, 2016 and Cruz would win back what he always had. He would go on and defend the belt two times but then lost it after. He was set to fight in December of 2017 but was forced out due to a broken arm and hasn’t fought since.

It’s very sad to see a fighter get an injury that ended their career but that’s a life of a fighter. It’s not an easy life to live, you must give up a lot of time, always pushing your body to the limit and worry about the fight ahead while blocking everything out. Injuries can either make or break a fighter’s will to push forward or give up. Fighters go through a lot and this just shows how tough these fighters are.