ESPN UK has recently reported that Michael “The Count” Bisping may go under the knife to fix trapped nerve in his neck, just two months before his scheduled bout against Alan “The Talent” Belcher. Bisping elaborated on his condition to ESPN reporters:

“My right arm, and this is the first time I’ve mentioned this, I have a trapped nerve in my neck and [possibly] need surgery on my neck. The way they’ve described it is that if you stand on a hosepipe, a lot of the water doesn’t get through. The nerves along my right arm aren’t getting through.”

“All along here (gestures towards his side and pectoral area), you could squeeze my pec, really get your nails into it, and I wouldn’t feel a thing. My right arm is so much weaker than my left, it’s called atrophy, my muscle is wasting away because nerve signals aren’t getting through. I need that taken care of but I’ve been fighting so much that I haven’t had time for the treatment..’”

Later he continued, “The thing is I’ve got another fight booked already. My hand, I can’t even make a fist because I keep going into fight after fight after fight. Really what I need is six months off, but I don’t want to take six months off. I like what I do, I like to be kept busy.”

The Count hopes to bounce back quickly from his surgery, and get back in the win column, but one has to question if he is taking this injury as seriously as he should. If the doctors are recommending six months and instead Bisping opts to take none and continue in pursuit of a win over Alan Belcher, could he be hurting his future as a contender in the UFC’s Middleweight Division. Bisping has already suffered a devastating loss to Vitor Belfort to take him from a possible shot at the title.

Bisping has always expressed that he is not one to make excuses, he always taken the “Suck it up and be a man” approach in his career, but if he doesn’t take care of his body while he is in what he believes to be his prime he may see his shelf life as a UFC Middleweight diminish. Injury aside it sounds like we’ll still be seeing a great middleweight bout between Bisping and Belcher this April.

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