A lot of uncertainty surrounds the UFC’s immediate future. UFC president Dana White has estimated there won’t be fights for at least another month, with UFC 249 canceled and the remainder of the schedule postponed.
While the UFC is on lockdown, Aljamain Sterling will attempt to continue his progress toward being 100 percent healthy. A top bantamweight contender, Sterling (18-3 MMA, 10-3 UFC) is coming off of wrist surgery – a procedure done to repair a nagging injury.
Every day, Sterling inches closer to the finish line, he says. His wrist is healing, and he says it no longer hurts. Right now, it’s more of a mobility issue, Sterling said in a recent interview with MMA Junkie.
“It’s more of a mobility, range-of-motion thing,” Sterling said. “I mean, I couldn’t even put my hand flat on the ground. This is my good hand, but I couldn’t even put my good hand flat when I was doing my cartwheels into the octagon. I would have to go and prop it up because I couldn’t deal with the pain that was in my wrist. I finally got it fixed. It was four years of fighting like that, training like that – a lot of pain. It got progressively worse. I won’t lie.”
While his range of motion is still an issue, with the pain largely gone, Sterling said he’s making progress. With more time and conditioning, Sterling said he could regain a full range of motion in the wrist, which serves as his current goal.
“Right now, I still have the chance to get back the majority of my range of motion,” Sterling said. “I’ve seen some surgeries he’s done (on) other high-level athletes in the NFL for the New York Giants and other combat sports. Those guys have full range of motion. I just have got to stay diligent with that, and hopefully it’ll come. Right now, it’s better than it was in terms of the pain threshold.
“I’ve been grappling like this with one hand when I had the one cast on since December. I think if I had to put a number on it, it’d probably be about 65-70 percent. I’m probably closer to 70 in terms of the strength and everything and the range of motion. I think that’s my overall assessment of where I’m at.”
Note: MMA Junkie’s interview with Sterling was conducted prior to the cancellation of upcoming UFC events.
Aljamain Sterling gives update on wrist, says he's 70 percent recovered
