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Carlos Condit explains how he felt 'lucky' after suffering ACL tear
It's hard to imagine any fighter using the word "lucky" to describe an ACL tear in their knee, but that's exactly how former UFC interim welterweight champion Carlos Condit looks at his recent injury and surgery that forced him to sit on the sidelines for the last year.
As much as Condit wanted to sit mired in a funk of depression, he refused to get caught up in the "Why me?" syndrome and instead just turned his focus towards recovery and rehabilitation.
There was no going back to the fight against Tyron Woodley, where his knee got caught during a takedown that snapped his ACL like a rubber band. He couldn't erase history, so instead he looked towards the future.
A future where he was back in the Octagon fighting again. And that's where he'll be Saturday, when he faces Thiago Alves in the main event of UFC Fight Night on FOX Sports 1.
"It's part of the sport. After it happened, there was no changing it," Condit told FOX Sports. "I wasn't going to be able to re-grow my ACL back overnight. I was where I was with this and I just had to accept it. I had to stay focused on getting back."
The injury came just a few months shy of Condit's 12th anniversary as a professional fighter. The New Mexico native hasn't been immune to injury in his career, but tearing his ACL was something completely new to him.
He hurt his knee before, but nothing this serious. Condit suffered a freak hand injury when he sliced a couple of fingers while cleaning out his garage and the gash ended up infected, which pushed the former WEC champion into the hospital and out of action for several weeks.
Because injuries are so commonplace in MMA, Condit actually believes he was probably living on borrowed time without facing something this serious before. It's in that regard that Condit feels fortunate that he was able to go this long without blowing out a knee or some other problem that could have derailed his run as one of the sports elite fighters.
"Honestly, I kind of felt in a weird way lucky because it was 12 years into my career that this happened. It could have happened a long time ago and really set me back," Condit said. "At least I've accomplished quite a bit in the sport before this happened and ultimately something like this is inevitable in a sport like MMA."
The other positive Condit had after facing surgery was the fact that his knee actually feels stronger now than it did before he suffered the ACL tear.
As strange as it might sound, medical science has advanced to the point where an ACL replacement can not only heal a torn ligament, but actually give an athlete more stability and function than before.
"The knee feels very strong, it does feel very stable," Condit stated. "I get a little bit of inflammation here and there, but that's pretty much the same with all my joints. I think that's the wear and tear of being in training camp. In my surgery, I got a cadaver graft and they put an Achilles' tendon in, which is actually like four times thicker than your natural ACL and after your body assimilates it, it is quite a bit stronger."
Condit holds his knee after suffering the ACL injury in his fight against Tyron Woodley.
Once the knee was healed, Condit got back in the gym. But without a fight on the horizon for the first time since he first stepped into a MMA arena back in 2002, he was able to just focus on the little things instead of immediately shifting his aim towards one particular opponent.
If there's a downside to staying as busy as Condit has been over the last decade, it's the fact that it's nearly impossible to concentrate on the nuances of MMA rather than worrying about the broad strokes that are necessary to prepare for any one fight.
"I do take a lot of positives out of this," Condit said. "It happened, it is what it is, but I got to work on things that I wanted to work on as far as my personal development as a martial artist instead of training for a specific person or a specific game plan. ... I wrestled a lot. I really went back to some of my fundamentals in regards to my balance and positioning and my stance. Foot positioning, leg positioning, which part of that was some of the rehab because you really have to focus on the structural integrity of your lower knee and ankle and I think it has helped my overall game and performance."
If there was a difficult part to the time off, it was Condit watching the welterweight division move on without him.
In the time he was gone, the title has switched hands between Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler, and now Rory MacDonald -- a fighter Condit defeated in 2010 -- is the next man in line to fight for the gold.
To ensure that he didn't drive himself mad by contemplating all the different scenarios he would engage in if he wasn't injured, Condit had to watch fights purely as a spectator and just enjoy the sport as a fan.
"I watched, but I watched as a fan," Condit said. "I did kind of take myself out of competitive mode because if I didn't, I would have driven myself crazy. So I focused on rehab and just looked at what I had in front of me and what I could do and luckily I did have quite a challenge in regards to rehab so that kind of kept my mind busy. I got through it and I think I'm better for it."
Now that he's finally set to return this weekend against Alves in Brazil, Condit has started to look at the top fighters and matchups in the division that could affect him this year. Stylistically, fighters like Lawler and MacDonald play right into the style of fight that Condit loves, but he also knows that thinking too far ahead could kill the comeback he's worked so hard for in the last year.
"It is cool that I maintained the ranking, and I think part of that is guys that I've beat or had fights with are still at the top of the division," Condit said.
"All these guys are well-rounded mixed martial artists, but they are incredible strikers. They look to finish fights. They're out there trying to win. They're out there trying to end their opponent's night, not just cruise to a decision victory. Everybody's hungry right now. Everybody wants that title. I agree that makes it very exciting."
As much as Condit would love to get back into the title race or maybe get a taste of revenge by earning a rematch with Woodley, the thing he's most excited about right now is actually walking up the steps to get into the Octagon again.
Condit is well known for his soft-spoken nature outside the cage, but then unleashing a beast when the cage door closes and his opponent is staring back at him. It's the look that he gets in his eyes at that moment that helped define Condit's nickname as "The Natural Born Killer."
Truth be told, he hasn't experienced that feeling in over a year, and like a lion that's been caged in captivity, he's just ready to go on the hunt again.
"I love doing what I do. Fight week and everything leading up to the fight, the whole ritual, even the weight cut, I love it," Condit said. "All that culminating in getting ready and warming up and flipping that switch and getting in the Octagon and getting it done.
"Doing what I love to do. I cannot wait. I'm super excited to be able to get back in and do my thing."
