Cris Cyborg (Hot Pics)

On the recovery trail

I’ve got some great news to start off this week’s blog -- I’m healed!

It’s been about seven weeks since my leg injury, which was about the target time on my recovery. On Thursday, I went to the doctor and he did an X-ray and after looking at it, he came back and told me my fibula is completely healed and the tibia has just a small percentage of the bone that’s not quite healed. But the final diagnosis means I can go ahead and start walking on it.

I haven’t been putting any weight on my leg at all up to this point, so I wasn’t quite expecting that. I haven’t even been walking on it with the cast on.

So I tried to get up off the table and walk out of the doctor’s office. I couldn’t do it. I took about two steps and then asked for my crutches. But the doctor said I should ease into it over a couple days and I can start to slowly re-strengthen it.

I’ll be able to start exercising and doing squats, but nothing involving impact, so no running, jumping or skipping.

It’s funny though, I’ve been going to physiotherapy for a few weeks and they’ve been trying to get the range of motion in my ankle better. If I bend it downward, it’s okay but bending it upward, hasn’t been good. I can’t really do it at all.

Well my doctor explained why. It’s because he put a big screw in there that goes all the way through my ankle and out the other side -- it’s actually sticking out a little bit. He put it in there to stop what’s called dorsiflexion. Dorsiflexion is causing me to pull my ankle up toward me. To do that, the ankle has to spread a bit -- and that can do a lot of damage if it’s not completely healed.

So the doctor purposely put it there, without me knowing it, to stop me from doing damage to my ankle. I’ve been going to the therapist and he’s been working it hard and we couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t getting any easier!

Anyway, at the 12-week mark, my doctor is going to freeze the ankle, make a little cut and then take a screwdriver and take out the screw. And he said it will be able to move upward again -- instantly.

On Friday night I was watching the Strikeforce weigh-ins and I realized I’m not at all excited about this card. These four fights really do nothing for me.

Fabricio Werdum is great on the ground but I think he has nothing to offer in the standup for Fedor. I think Emelianenko will knock him out.

Then Cris Cyborg is taking on a girl in Jan Finney who’s 8-7. She may be on a four-fight win streak, but I don’t feel she’s any sort of challenge for Cyborg. I’ve watched some clips of Cyborg training for this and I have a new respect for her -- she trains really hard. She was training with guys, doing as much weights as those guys. Now I’m not insinuating anything but that’s pretty impressive.

As for Scott Smith vs. Cung Le 2, that ship has already sailed. I have no desire to see this fight again. I don’t know what Scott Smith was thinking taking this fight. He has NOTHING to gain from this.

Finally, I’m a big fan of Josh Thomson, and Pat Healy is a tough guy. But I think Thomson is too fast, too explosive and too athletic for Healy. We’ve seen Healy grind out a lot of wins, but I just can’t see him doing it against Thomson. He’ll finish him off.

It’s too bad because I think Strikeforce has some great talent and great fights and matchups out there. But for a show on TV, it’s pretty lacklustre.

Now onto the UFC, I thought it was pretty cool of Chris Leben to step up on a couple days notice and fill in for Wanderlei Silva next week against Yoshihiro Akiyama. I picked Leben to lose to Aaron Simpson last Saturday, and what a surprise, I was wrong.

Now he gets another co-main event fight on a two-week turnaround. Good for Chris. Not too long ago he was on the verge of getting cut, but he turned things around and he’s been finding success.

On the other hand, Keith Jardine, who has been let go by the UFC, is a guy who’s fought some of the toughest guys out there, but is on a horrible run of losses. And not just losses, devastating KO losses.

On Father’s Day I took in the WEC in Edmonton. I went with my wife and my boys, and for a show that didn’t have any of the big-name WEC guys, it was awesome. It was probably one of the best fight cards (in any

promotion) I’ve been to in a number of years -- period. Even guys I’d never heard of went out there and did an awesome job that night.

Of course two Canadians stole the show. Mark Hominick in his war vs. Yves Jabouin and Chris Horodecki. If I could just sit down and watch Shawn Tompkins guys (Mark, Chris and Sam Stout) fight all night I’d be happy. They really, really performed that night.

Lastly, I don’t know what those judges were smoking that night scoring the main event as a draw. And the referee really should have deducted another point from Kamal Shalorus for the third low blow to Jamie Varner.

I don’t think it was intentional. But after you kick someone in the groin once and get a warning, as a fighter I know I’m a bit apprehensive to throw that inside kick again. But Shalorus just kept on throwing it with no attempt to avoid the low blow again.

I couldn’t believe he was doing that, especially since they weren’t doing any real damage and he wasn’t setting up anything. It would be one thing if he was following up the kick with a punch right after. But he was just throwing the kick and that’s it.

So when he landed the third one, I remember thinking he might be disqualified. What a shame it would be for it to end like that -- because it had been a great fight up to that point. And then I was shocked that the ref didn’t even deduct point. The penalty is supposed to be a deterrent to throwing those shots. Noy on this night.

Overall, I thought the organizers did a really good job for the first WEC in Canada. In a big stadium – and Rexall Place is really big -- they just used the lower bowl and it worked well. It was a good crowd who really appreciated the fights. I believe they’ve laid the groundwork for future shows. They could bring in another show with a bigger main event -- even a title fight -- and really, really do well there.

My last comment is about Kendall Grove getting knocked down from next week’s televised preliminary fights because he badmouthed Spike TV, which is airing two fights that was supposed to include his against Goran Reljic. I thought that was pretty stupid of him. It’s one thing to have your opinion and speak your mind, but don’t bite the hand that fees you. He was an Ultimate Fighter winner on Spike, and then he says those things? You have to exercise some discretion.


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