Joe Rogan Helps Sean Strickland Avoid Surgery for Shoulder Injury He Suffered Before Khamzat Chimaev Bout

Joe Rogan has apparently helped Sean Strickland with his shoulder tear as the clinic he recommended gave the latter a promising prognosis.

Joe Rogan Helps Sean Strickland Avoid Surgery for Shoulder Injury He Suffered Before Khamzat Chimaev Bout

Joe Rogan's recommendation helped Sean Strickland with his shoulder injury [via AOL and Earth.org]

In Short
  • Sean Strickland revealed he fought Khamzat Chimaev with a serious shoulder injury.
  • Joe Rogan recommended a clinic that confirmed Strickland won't need surgery.
  • Strickland expressed regret for injuring himself just days before the title fight.

Khamzat Chimaev losing his middleweight belt to Sean Strickland in his very first title defense was quite shocking. The MMA world had expected the Chechen to remain undefeated and go on a lengthy title run, but Strickland had other plans. However, what was more shocking than Chimaev’s loss was the revelation that ‘Tarzan’ had pulled off this incredible upset while sporting a grievous shoulder injury.

The two-time middleweight champion revealed after the fight that he had suffered a separated shoulder at Plinio Cruz‘s gym just days before his fight in Newark. Later, on X, the American middleweight said that he had suffered a Type 2 AC separation, along with an extended Type 5 SLAP tear and a partially torn rotator cuff.

Strickland joked that he would need to “walk this one off,” yet it appeared as if he was staring down a long road to recovery. However, now, he won’t need to, thanks to a recommendation from UFC commentator Joe Rogan. The two-time middleweight champion revealed in the caption of his Instagram post that he would not be requiring surgery, before sharing more details in the post itself.

Real, real small tear, but they’re going to fix me up. Joe Rogan got me on this place. He swears by it, so. Bionic man. We’re going to get back in the cage soon. These people are fixing me up, doing me all right.

Sean Strickland via Instagram

Earlier, Rogan had praised the UFC middleweight champion for fighting with an injury against an elite, undefeated champion like Chimaev. Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience, the former Fear Factor host said that an injury like Strickland’s would have made lesser fighters quit. Now, his recommendation and the ensuing encouraging diagnosis appear to have spared Strickland from surgery.

This means the chaos of Strickland’s next challenger’s identity will be quelled soon, with the champion’s recovery timeline having moved up. Even so, the middleweight champion was still kicking himself for getting injured in the first place just days before a title fight.

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Sean Strickland calls himself an ‘idiot’ for getting injured days before fighting Khamzat Chimaev

Khamzat Chimaev had steamrolled Dricus Du Plessis to win the UFC middleweight belt before fighting Sean Strickland. The South African had earlier dominated Strickland in their UFC 312 title fight. So, ‘Tarzan’ was a huge underdog heading into UFC 328. With the odds already stacked against him, the former welterweight did himself no favors by injuring himself while sparring former PFL champion Johnny Eblen.

Sean Strickland
Sean Strickland (via talkSport)

The two-time middleweight champion even admitted as much, lamenting the circumstances of his injury following his win at UFC 328. The 35-year-old told reporters at the post-fight press conference that this injury even affected his warmup, which left him feeling foolish.

So, on Tuesday, I’m sparring Johnny Eblen, PFL champ. And I’m at Plinio Cruz’s gym, and he shoots on me, and I hit this brick wall, and I separated my shoulder. So, I had a Grade 1 AC joint separation on Tuesday. I remember lying in bed on Tuesday night, and I can’t lay on my left side, and I’m like, ‘You are such an idiot’… In the back, I usually like to get better warmups, but I didn’t want to warm up and throw my shoulder out, so the entire time I was thinking I’m such a moron.

Sean Strickland via the UFC 328 post-fight presser

The fight in Newark wasn’t the first or only time Strickland has persevered through an injury in a title fight. In the aforementioned rematch against Du Plessis, ‘Tarzan’ had broken his shoulder and had to go to Colombia to get stem cells injected into it.

It appears the two-time middleweight champion is now receiving the same course of treatment for the latest shoulder injury he suffered. The American has been up to a lot recently as he rests and recuperates after his title win. Even so, he will soon have the UFC Freedom 250 to look forward to after revealing his desire to go support his training partner, Alex Pereira, in the co-main event.

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