Kevin Nicholson
Kevin Nicholson is a practicing physical therapist with over 30 years of experience. His career has included caring for injured high school athletes, war injured veterans, and the general population. Kevin has been an MMA fan for more than a decade, and has penned articles for MMA websites including BloodyElbow dating back to 2013. His focus is on fighter injury analysis, rehabilitation and recovery.
Explained: How a UFC fight resulted in a possible multi-ligament knee injury
Ketlen Souza suffered a serious injury at this weekend's UFC fight night card. Physical Therapist Kevin Nicholson explains how it happened.
MMA Injuries: Why doesn’t the ACL heal on its own?
Knee injuries, and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears in particular, are an all-too-common occurrence in MMA. It seems we hear of another MMA athlete suffering a torn ACL on a near weekly basis. The typical course of treatment includes surgical reconstruction of the ACL, followed by rehab lasting 8-12 months. Seldom does a fighter suffer […]
Josh Samman talks knee injury, surgery and yoga
I wonder if Josh Samman still does yoga. That’s how he originally injured his left knee. He has had two surgeries to correct the damage, and in a recent interview with MMA Sentinel he detailed his struggles with the knee injury that dates to before his time on The Ultimate Fighter. I tore my meniscus […]
Cain Velasquez on shoulder rehab, eyes November return
In a recent interview (in both Spanish and English), Cain Velasquez addressed his recovery process following a December shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder. On his rehabilitation progress, Cain notes “I’m toward the end of my rehab now. More so starting to try to get that strength back instead of […]
MMA Injury Update: The knee ligament edition
Ross Pearson In early February, UFC lightweight fighter Ross Pearson underwent surgery to repair torn lateral collateral and medial collateral ligaments in his knee, as well as a torn meniscus. The injury resulted from a leg kick in training. On February 21, he tweeted that he was already cleared to begin running and adding weights […]
Julianna Pena: ‘I’m coming with a nasty vengeance’
“Sometimes I think I train too vigorously.” It sometimes seems to fans and MMA observers (your truly included) that MMA athletes are loathe to make an admission such as this. However, this was Pena’s perception of herself in a recent interview with MMA Fight Radio. In the interview, Pena offered a revealing look at the […]
UFC Fight Night 36: Injury Rewind
Joe Proctor Joe last saw action in the cage back in December of 2012. That was a decision loss to Ramsey Nijem at UFC on Fox 5. He was set to fight Al Iaquinta in April 2013, and he had injured his left shoulder leading up to that bout. Proctor commented on that injury and […]
Miriam Nakamoto: “It’s scary where I’m at”
Invicta FC bantamweight Miriam Nakamoto is no stranger to career-threatening injuries. She successfully recovered from an ACL injury to her left knee. She knows full well the road that lies ahead of her as she recovers from the same ACL injury to her right knee, suffered in her bout with Lauren Murphy at Invicta FC […]
Invicta FC 7: Miriam Nakamoto confirms ACL tear
Miriam Nakamoto faced Lauren Murphy on last Saturday’s Invicta FC 7 card for the bantamweight championship. That fight was stopped in the 4th round as Nakamoto’s right knee gave way to injury. Nakamoto has tweeted news confirming that she tore her ACL. Good news: No collateral damage to my knee! MCL, PCL, meniscus, cartilage etc. […]
Josh Thomson’s mistaken advice to Anthony Pettis: Just rest and let it heal
UFC lightweight fighter Josh Thomson recently made some interesting comments concerning lightweight champion Anthony Pettis’s decision to have his torn posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) surgically repaired. In an interview with Steph Daniels posted on BloodyElbow.com, Thomson essentially surmised that he “worked through” a torn PCL and kept fighting, and therefore Pettis should have done the […]
VIDEO: Dominick Cruz in rehab, training at Sport Science Lab
Dominick Cruz’s rehabilitation from two devastating ACL knee injuries could be considered complete when he returns to the Octagon in February 2014 to face Renan Barao at UFC 169. By then, it will have been more than two years since he last fought in October 2011. Recently, Sport Science Lab (SSL) released a video featuring […]
Tuff-N-Uff fighter Mike Florio suffers gruesome leg injury
Mike Florio suffered a terrible leg injury in his recent bout with Jim Elmer for Tuff-N-Uff. The injury occurred when Elmer executed a take down. The images of the injury were captured by Tracy Lee, and can be seen here on MMAJunkie.com. Tracy also posted a couple of the pictures on Twitter (Warning: very graphic […]
Stefan Struve returns to full training schedule
Back in March at UFC on Fuel 8, Stefan Struve was the victim of a brutal Mark Hunt left hand that left him with a fractured jaw. But that was just the beginning of a tough year for the UFC heavyweight. In August he was diagnosed with a leaking aortic valve and enlarged heart that […]
UFC 166: Melendez’s banged-up thumb, Cain’s representatives confused
The three round battle between Diego Sanchez and Gilbert Melendez was arguably the best fight of the year thus far, and it showed on the face of Diego Sanchez. He received a long medical suspension related to the facial cuts that he received. Initially, Gilbert Melendez appeared to escape the bout relatively unscathed, and his […]
UFC’s Conor McGregor has ACL knee surgery
UFC Featherweight phenom Conor McGregor entered his UFC Fight Night 26 bout vs. Max Holloway with an incredible degree of hype. While he did win that fight, he suffered a knee injury that will put him out of action for most of the next year. Early this morning, McGregor tweeted news that he had completed […]
Anthony Pettis’ Knee Injury and Rehabilitation
On September 3rd Dana White announced via Twitter that UFC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis had suffered a grade II sprain of the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) in his knee. The injury occurred in his recent championship bout with Benson Henderson at UFC 164. Pettis is expected to be out of action for the next 7 […]
UFC 164 Injury Rewind
Heading into tonight’s UFC 164 we’ve got a number of fighters with a remarkable variety of injuries in their history. Here’s a quick run through of what we know: Magnus Cedenblad Cedenblad’s last fight was at UFC on Fuel TV 2 in April 2012. He was pulled from his scheduled UFC on FOX 6 bout […]
UFC Fight Night 27 Injury Rewind
This edition of the Injury Rewind highlights five fighters on the UFC Fight Night 27 card who are either returning to the Octagon after injury layoffs, or have a notable or interesting injury history. Martin Kampmann The Hitman’s last fight was a November 2012 loss to Johny Hendricks at UFC 154. He took time off […]
Why UFC Bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz Should Have a Successful Return
Most MMA observers are familiar with the story of Dominick Cruz’ knee injuries. The short version is that he suffered consecutive ACL tears to the same knee over a very short time frame. His first injury occurred in May of 2012, and was the result of a training injury. He underwent surgical reconstruction of the […]
Conor McGregor Has Torn ACL
Injury does not bow to hype. BREAKING: @danawhite confirms to @FOXSportsLive that McGregor’s MRI shows ACL tear, MCL strain & posterior horn meniscal tear. Out ~10mo — UFCONFOX (@UFCONFOX) August 23, 2013 Dana White confirmed to FOX Sports Live that Conor McGregor has suffered an ACL tear, MCL strain and a meniscus tear in his […]