Longtime mixed martial arts (MMA) bantamweight contender Michael McDonald has retired. The former UFC and Bellator MMA competitor announced the decision earlier this week. The 27-year-old’s last performance was two months ago at Bellator 202. He knocked out former Bellator bantamweight champion Eduardo Dantas in 53 seconds.
McDonald is an extremely talented fighter, who has been competing for titles from an early age. In fact, he challenged for the UFC bantamweight title back in 2013. Unfortunately, hand injuries have plagued his career over the past several years. He re-injured his hand after knocking out Dantas in July.
The pain was so bad that McDonald characterized it as the most excruciating he has ever felt in his life. He underwent successful surgery to repair the injury, however, the side effects have been extremely hindering. McDonald tells “The MMA Hour” that he has “zero function” in his left bicep (via MMA Fighting):
“I have zero function of my left bicep whatsoever,” McDonald said. “There was an issue during the surgery, and we think it was the anesthesiologist, not the surgeon that I had, that I actually have zero ability to use my left bicep whatsoever. It’s completely dead. So, already my left arm is like half the size of my right arm. Now it’s been almost a month that I have not been able to use my left bicep whatsoever, so I can’t open a jar, I can’t get a box out of the cupboard, I lift a sheet of plywood or a cabinet. Nothing.
“I talked to my surgeon about it and he used a lot of big words and told me a lot about it. He said, ‘The way that this happened, it’s still connected, but basically it’s not coming back, it’s not waking back up.’ Now, there are different reasons that people’s muscles don’t come back after surgery, but this particular reason and how this happened is about a 1-in-8,000 chance. My surgeon is a surgeon of 20 years and he said he’s never seen it happen to any of his patients, so it’s quite a rare thing when it happened.
“The good news is all recorded cases have recovered that have been recorded in a medical journal. Its not a for-sure thing that it comes back, but the odds are in my favor that it does. But just because it comes back doesn’t mean it’s not a huge burden on my life. They said on average it can take up to six months to come back, so literally not being able to use your arm for six months, that kinda sucks.”
What do you make of McDonald’s retirement?
