UFC Champ Dos Santos Undergoes Successful Knee Surgery
Junior dos Santos is recuperating in Sao Paulo tonight. | Photo:
Victor Hugo Carvalho Leite
UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos underwent successful surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee on Wednesday morning.
Dos Santos sustained the injury in the week prior to his title-winning performance against former champion Cain Velasquez at UFC on Fox 1, which took place Nov. 12 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
“My knee surgery was great. I’m feeling very well,” the Brazilian big man wrote on Twitter following the surgery, which took place at Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo. “[I have] no pain and [I’m] just resting a little bit. Tomorrow morning, I’m gonna go back to Salvador.”
Despite suffering the injury so close to the fight date, dos Santos was not deterred in his quest to win the title. The Team Nogeuria representative caught Velasquez with an overhand right early in the first frame, disrupting the former champion’s equilibrium and sending him tumbling to the canvas. After administering some ground-and-pound, dos Santos was declared the new heavyweight champ, lifting the belt from his favored opponent in just 64 seconds.
According to Brazilian website Portal do Vale Tudo, dos Santos is expected to return to training in roughly three to four weeks. “Cigano” is slated to defend his title in 2012 against the winner of Dec. 30’s Brock Lesnar-Alistair Overeem clash at UFC 141, though it is currently unknown when that planned championship affair might take place.
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