John Makdessi needs UFC’s help in getting ACL, MCL injury repaired following UFC Brasilia injury
By Amy Kaplan
UFC lightweight John Makdessi needs the UFC’s help in getting ACL injury repaired from UFC Brasilia injury he suffered over a month ago.
UFC lightweight John Makdessi is a little over a month removed from his UFC Brasilia bout, the final UFC fight card before the coronavirus pandemic shut down sports worldwide, and he’s no closer to recovery from an injury sustained in the Octagon.
“I was moving a lot during the fight, my knee gave up,” Makdessi told FanSided. “I heard a pop, I heard a big crack. My leg instantaneously felt a lot of inflammation. I continued fighting. I’m not sure which round my knee started to bother me. I kept distracting myself from the knee pain to continue fighting.”
According to Maskdessi, he has an 80 percent ACL tear on his right knee and a complex tear of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus (50 percent), with a partial MCL tear and femoral condyle contusion. It will require surgery.
Makdessi, who had already been away from his family for the entire six-week fight camp was then quarantined another two weeks when he returned home, unable to seek medical attention due to stay at home orders and the mandatory quarantine. He was eventually diagnosed, but due to Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions, he’s unable to have the mandatory surgery anytime soon.
Now he’s seeking the UFC’s help in getting his proper medical attention so he can start rehabbing while in quarantine and be healed and ready to fight again when things get back to normal.
“I was hoping the UFC could fly me out to Las Vegas to do the surgery to rehab, so I can get the process started,” he said. “Because over here, doctors, hospitals, nobody is doing anything not related to COVID-19. So, I’m pretty much on the sidelines, everything is shut down, everything stops.”
He hopes that his 10 years in the promotion, paired with the uniqueness of the situation, will help the UFC make the decision to help so the almost-35-year-old he won’t lose precious fight time.
“I was always a company man,” he said. “I’m very proud. I never ask for anything, I’m very quiet. I never want to bother them, even in my early earlier days. I would always try to find my own way through. I knew they had bigger things to worry about. So, after like 10 years in the company, especially with everything going on, I need to ask.”
The injuries, on top of the loss, have compounded in a lot of frustration for Makdessi especially considering he feels he did enough to win the decision.
“I respected this power, he hit hard,” Makdessi said. “I felt that I did enough to win the fight. The game plan was to tire him out. I did a lot of footwork. It’s a very tough result, so I thought I did enough to win the fight. I know it was a very close fight. And then after you look at the numbers. I mean the numbers show that on paper I should have won the fight, numbers don’t lie.”
The official stats for the bout do reflect better for Makdessi, though we all know that judges aren’t seeing these stats when they judge a fight.
On top of his injury, needing to move out of his home and the worldwide shutdown, he says he also has a bone to pick with the commentary on his UFC Brasilia bout, particularly with former champion, Michael Bisping.
Bisping was one of a few fighters to band together to sue Fear The Fighter clothing brand, of which Makdessi was the face of. He says he had no hand in the dealings which left many fighters unpaid for their sponsorships back in 2015.
“He’s one of the fighters that was accusing me of stealing money,” he said. “He was commentating. So once I got back home. I watched the fight, and I heard his commentary, talking about a lot of things that made no sense. I just find it very funny how a guy like that … he wasn’t the smartest fighter. He took a lot of damage, he took a lot of shots. And I’m very surprised by how he’s commentating. Especially when he was doing the commentary of my fight, you know, I found it funny how he said I was running away, but any intelligent person understands. When you look at my fight, you understand why I was moving a lot, because he was very aggressive. He was coming forward. So, as a counter fighter, I was just being the smartest fighter, I would move away from him to keep my distance, but also having an 80 percent torn ACL. So, all things considering, I find it very unfortunate that Michael Bisping of all people, was doing the commentary and by the way, when he was talking, you could tell he has a grudge against me.
The fighters, they said I stole money from them, which obviously was false. I had nothing to do with the finances, I was just a name on the paper. Straight up, if he reads this interview. He has more money than me, guaranteed and I never took his f–king money. If anything, being a part of Fear the Fighter, having my name on as one of the owners, was one of my biggest learning mistakes because I trusted the people. I trust in others to run a business and I took that gamble. But, call me a stealer, call me a thief, he’s incompetent. He sucks, he’s not even good at commentary.”
Regardless of the troubles Makdessi has faced this year, he’s grateful to have a new gym family at The MMA Lab as he left Roufusport for a warmer climate.
“Before I was introduced to Duke Roufus, I always wanted to train with Benson Henderson,” he said. “I got the call and when out there. They welcomed me in like family, very nice people. The weather is beautiful, it’s good to have a training camp without snow or cold.”
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