The Mac
07-21-2010, 09:05 AM
When UFC welterweight contender Dustin Hazelett (12-5 MMA, 5-3 UFC) steps into the cage on Aug. 7 for his bout with Rick Story, "McLovin" will be doing so against his doctor's advice.
But armed with an intense passion for fighting and a lack of a "Plan B," Hazelett says he can't wait to set foot in the octagon.
"There's always concerns," Hazelett recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio "Even before I started fighting there were concerns because clearly it's a dangerous sport. It's not tap dancing, but this is what I love to do."
Hazelett suffered a broken orbital bone in his January fight with Paul Daley, and the injury required some extensive recovery time. Hazelett said he adhered to all recommended guidelines and elected to remain patient as it healed.
"There was a two-month suspension with no contact whatsoever," Hazelett said. "Basically, I couldn't do any type of actual training except for mitt-work and conditioning – no sparring or grappling or anything like that. Then there was a six-month suspension from fighting, so it was kind of a lengthy layoff there, but I really didn't want to rush back and end up re-fracturing it.
"They said, 'If you rush back into sparring, and you get hit hard, it will end up fracturing again, and it will be even worse.' I wanted to give it time to make sure that it completely healed so that I wouldn't rush into a fight, get hurt, and I'd be off even longer. I wanted to make sure I was completely 100 percent coming back."
The Nevada State Athletic Commission gave Hazelett the opportunity to return early with a doctor's clearance, but when the 24-year-old visited a professional line up by the UFC, he received some startling advice.
"They sent me to a leading expert in my area, I guess, and he was not too keen on the idea of me coming back early," Hazelett said. "In fact, he refused to let me come back early, and he said, 'If you were my son, I would suggest you never fight again, obviously.'
"You've got to realize that a lot of medical experts are highly against fighting in the first place because of all the severe medical damage it can do. But he said that apparently when you fracture an orbital, it never heals back to 100 percent, so it could fracture again easier, but if that's true, I would say like 99 percent of the fighters in the UFC have the same chances of getting re-injured that I have."
Hazelett put little stock in the advice.
"I'm not really worried about it," Hazelett said. "He seemed kind of conservative about fighting."
Besides, the Ohio native has been fighting since age 18. What else is he supposed to do?
"I'm going to keep doing it as long as I can," Hazelett said. "Any time you hear something like that, it just gives you reason for concern to kind of say, 'Maybe I need a Plan B in case this one goes bad,' but I don't really have one, so I'm just going to keep doing this until I can't do it anymore and then I'll wing it from there."
The next step along that path is scheduled for Aug. 7, and Hazelett said he's ready to reverse his recent fortunes.
"It's been kind of rough," Hazelett said. "My last fight was Daley, and I had the fractured orbital, so I had a medical suspension for that. After the (Tamdan) McCrory fight, which was the fight before that, I tore my ACL, so I was out for 14 months. The fight before that was the (Josh) Burkman one, and after that fight, I had to have nose surgery because I had a severely deviated septum and stuff. It's been kind of a rough patch lately.
"I'm really looking forward to coming back and kind of starting over and getting a couple of wins together without any lengthy layoff."
But armed with an intense passion for fighting and a lack of a "Plan B," Hazelett says he can't wait to set foot in the octagon.
"There's always concerns," Hazelett recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio "Even before I started fighting there were concerns because clearly it's a dangerous sport. It's not tap dancing, but this is what I love to do."
Hazelett suffered a broken orbital bone in his January fight with Paul Daley, and the injury required some extensive recovery time. Hazelett said he adhered to all recommended guidelines and elected to remain patient as it healed.
"There was a two-month suspension with no contact whatsoever," Hazelett said. "Basically, I couldn't do any type of actual training except for mitt-work and conditioning – no sparring or grappling or anything like that. Then there was a six-month suspension from fighting, so it was kind of a lengthy layoff there, but I really didn't want to rush back and end up re-fracturing it.
"They said, 'If you rush back into sparring, and you get hit hard, it will end up fracturing again, and it will be even worse.' I wanted to give it time to make sure that it completely healed so that I wouldn't rush into a fight, get hurt, and I'd be off even longer. I wanted to make sure I was completely 100 percent coming back."
The Nevada State Athletic Commission gave Hazelett the opportunity to return early with a doctor's clearance, but when the 24-year-old visited a professional line up by the UFC, he received some startling advice.
"They sent me to a leading expert in my area, I guess, and he was not too keen on the idea of me coming back early," Hazelett said. "In fact, he refused to let me come back early, and he said, 'If you were my son, I would suggest you never fight again, obviously.'
"You've got to realize that a lot of medical experts are highly against fighting in the first place because of all the severe medical damage it can do. But he said that apparently when you fracture an orbital, it never heals back to 100 percent, so it could fracture again easier, but if that's true, I would say like 99 percent of the fighters in the UFC have the same chances of getting re-injured that I have."
Hazelett put little stock in the advice.
"I'm not really worried about it," Hazelett said. "He seemed kind of conservative about fighting."
Besides, the Ohio native has been fighting since age 18. What else is he supposed to do?
"I'm going to keep doing it as long as I can," Hazelett said. "Any time you hear something like that, it just gives you reason for concern to kind of say, 'Maybe I need a Plan B in case this one goes bad,' but I don't really have one, so I'm just going to keep doing this until I can't do it anymore and then I'll wing it from there."
The next step along that path is scheduled for Aug. 7, and Hazelett said he's ready to reverse his recent fortunes.
"It's been kind of rough," Hazelett said. "My last fight was Daley, and I had the fractured orbital, so I had a medical suspension for that. After the (Tamdan) McCrory fight, which was the fight before that, I tore my ACL, so I was out for 14 months. The fight before that was the (Josh) Burkman one, and after that fight, I had to have nose surgery because I had a severely deviated septum and stuff. It's been kind of a rough patch lately.
"I'm really looking forward to coming back and kind of starting over and getting a couple of wins together without any lengthy layoff."