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Aljamain Sterling is out with an acute neck injury. He is scheduled to undergo surgery that is expected to keep him inactive for quite some time. The 31-year old was initially speculated to be out for nine months. However, while speaking on his podcast 'Weekly Scraps', Aljamain Sterling put forth a detailed account of the situation.
“I was trying to avoid going under the knife but we’re back on schedule. We’re going to get an artificial disc replacement done. There’s two procedures — the fusion or the artificial disc replacement."
"We decided to go with the artificial disc replacement just to keep more of the flexibility of the neck and not put more stress with the fusion on the disc that are a level above or below."
"Because when you take away the motion and it fuses, you put more stress on the discs above or below or sometimes both. A lot of time and a lot of effort researching it has been going into it."
"Yeah, it was a week but I tried to exhaust all options. The last thing I could have done was taking more time, which is what I don’t want to do. I want to get this thing done and taken care of so that I can get back out to compete as soon as possible.”
WIth this podcast interview, Aljamain Sterling scraped rumors about his upcoming neck surgery.
What does DC think of Aljamain Sterling's injury?
Recently speaking on the 'DC and Helwani' show, former UFC two-division champion Daniel Cormier thinks the injury is graver than it seems. DC is not expecting the current UFC bantamweight champion to make a return anytime soon.
He said, "Neck surgeries are bad. When my coach Kevin Jackson hurt his neck, his career was essentially done. So I just don't know how he comes back in six months from a surgery like that."
Further discussing prospects for the bantamweight division, Cormier went on to say that a possible interim title may be on the cards.
He said, "I think we're going to have an interim title fight, and you can't get mad at it. Let Aljo [Aljamain Sterling] take his time to recover because the worst thing he can do is get the surgery, come back too early and hurt himself."
Following his controversial win against Petr Yan for the bantamweight title at UFC 259, Aljamain Sterling looked ready to begin defending his title. While recent news has disclosed that Petr Yan has pulled out of the slated rematch, little is known about the future of the bantamweight division.
With TJ Dillashaw making his return to the octagon against Cory Sandhaegan, UFC president Dana White may well slip in an interim title to keep Petr Yan company. But with Aljamain Sterling having to stay out of action for what is to be a prolonged period of time, the division is currently without an active champion.
Do you think the inclusion of an interim title will solve the UFC's problems in the bantamweight division? Or will Aljamain Sterling make a rather unexpected return?
