Earlier this month, Michael McDonald was supposed to come back after two years of injury but it almost didn’t happen.
McDonald, who now has a record of 16-3 MMA and 5-2 UFC, was supposed to go against masanori Kanehara, who’s holding a record 25-12-5 MMA and 1-1 UFC. But McDonald didn’t seal the deal just yet. He admitted that he’s a bit worried if it’s time for him come back to the octagon or if needs more time to heal. McDonald had to constantly deal with the injuries he sustained on his right hand and left shoulder.
The 24-year old MMA fighter once became the youngest fighter in the UFC lineup. He actually became famous when was tagged as the youngest upstart with great talent and huge potential. Just like any fighter, he later on found out what he had to do in order to last in the industry.
In a recent interview with MMAjunkie, McDonald revealed what he found out after he had a time off in the octagon.
“Now it makes perfect sense to me that the only purpose for breaking down your body is to build it back up. You need to put equal time into that,” he said.
In the past, McDonald admitted that he didn’t spend a lot of time to give his body time to heal. He admitted he didn’t think it giving his body a break and recover is equally important to preparing for an upcoming fight. Instead, he poured his time on full time training, checking the type of grind, and doing repetitive work which later on takes a toll on an athlete’s body.
“As hard as I could punch with these $15 Title gloves, no hand wraps, stuff like that. I would just be blasting these pads. My hands never hurt, so it was never a big deal,” he said.
Unfortunately, the work that he put on his hands took a toll and required him to undergo surgeries for his hand and wrist. When he got them checked, the doctors said that his he might have sustained a tendon injury because of all the punching.
Now that he had a chance to come back to fighting, McDonald decided it was time for him to give his body the rest and healing process that he needs. At such a young age in the MMA industry, he realized that the body can take only so much punching and abuse.
Aside from sitting on the sidelines for now, McDonald also realized some things about his career in the UFC.
“The more you go into it, the more you’re like, man, this is isn’t exactly what I thought it was going to be. This isn’t like I thought my life would be as a professional athlete. It would be the same as if you’re a salesman and you wake up one day and you’re like, man, a lot of my day is just coaching people into giving me money. That’s kind of weird. Am I sure I want to be doing this for the rest of my life?” he said.
McDonald admitted that he doesn’t mind all the time lost when he had to take a break. He’s not in a hurry with anything because he’s actually ahead of the game.
“Most people don’t even get signed until they’re older than I am, so I’m not in a hurry. That’s how I hurt myself,” he said.