Four surgeries later and Thiago Alves is again on the mend.
Alves was scheduled to fight Matt Brown at UFC on Fox Sports 1 in Boston on Aug. 17, but a biceps injury forced him off the card and into the operating room… again.
Alves underwent the surgery on Thursday and sounded in good spirits afterwards.
“That’s surgery 4 in a year,” he tweeted. “You can call me the bionic Pitbull! Now the recovery starts!”
That’s surgery 4 in a year. You can call me the bionic Pitbull! Now the recovery starts! http://t.co/h3TIOHKSHy
— Thiago Alves. (@ThiagoAlvesATT) July 11, 2013
The American Top Team fighter hasn’t been fully healthy for the past several years, since he injured his knee in a 2009 bout with Georges St-Pierre.
He rehabbed the knee at that time, but years later had to have surgery to repair both his ACL and PCL in his left knee. Alves also suffered a torn pectoral muscle that required surgery, and now the biceps injury has hampered him.
Alves has fought just five times in the four years since the injury in the St-Pierre bout at UFC 100. He is 2-3 during that span, and last saw action in a loss to Martin Kampmann at UFC on FX 2 in March 2012 in Australia.