Sad day for those who love explosive action.
Former K-1 and Glory kickboxing champion Gokhan Saki had to remove himself from his UFC 219 fight with Khalil Rountree after an unfortunate knee injury. Now the Lightheavyweight is rehabbing at the UFC performance Institute and hopes to be back in the Octagon in March or April of next year.
Saki did an interview with MMAFighting in which he explained that the original injury occurred in 2012.
“This is an old injury that first came about at Glory 1 in Sweden. Something was wrong about five minutes before the fight. I went to the fight and finished it in one minute, but when I came back to the locker room my knee was swollen.
“I stopped for one week and then I continued training. With kickboxing, I could never really feel it, but in my UFC fight, I could feel something go wrong again when I kicked. Maybe it was the movement and the different footwork.”
“Turkish Tyson” said that he rested the knee for three weeks after his debut win over Enrique De Silva, but grappling training re-aggravated it. Doctors discovered a ‘bucket- handle’ meniscus tear.
“I told the doctor that I really wanted to fight on Dec. 30th. I told him even with the injury I wanted to fight. He told me to take one or two weeks rest and then to start training again, but not jiu-jitsu or anything that’s too tough on your knees.
“I took the two weeks off and I flew to Miami to do a camp there and in the first training I hurt it more. I threw a kick, I didn’t turn my leg enough and now the tear is even bigger.”
Saki had the meniscus repaired five weeks ago and is cleared to return to training in 3 weeks.
“The day after my first training session in Miami they fixed my meniscus, but after fixing it the rehab takes about eight weeks.
“I’m hoping to fight again in March,” said Saki. “I would love to fight then, in March or April. The recovery going well. Today is five weeks since my meniscus was fixed so in three weeks we can start training again.”
Saki seems excited for his prospects at Lightheavyweight. The division’s title will be contested between champion Daniel Cormier and challenger Volkan Oezdemir in late January, and in the notoriously shallow division, an impressive win upon return could catapult Saki towards a title shot.
“I want to fight everybody. Khalil was on the menu, so we need to beat him and then go to the next opponent.”
“Next year you’re going to see the best Saki. For so long I have been dealing with this injury and now that it’s fixed I’m going to be able to do a lot more.
“2018 will be a big year for me.”
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