Some good news has been released in regards to Jared Hess and his freak knee injury from Alex Shlemenko at Bellator 20.
First a brief write up on the nature of the human knee and pic of the injured, disappointed, but still game fighter from Sherdog.com.
The human knee is beautifully designed for the majority of what man has asked of it in the last 500,000 years. The simple structure is near ideal for following the perambulations of migrating antelope or fleeing predation from the alpha predators primitive man evolved among. However, as Jared Hess demonstrated in his bout with Alexander Shlemenko last Thursday at Bellator 20, the dynamics of an MMA fight can far exceed what nature designed the knee to endure.
The knee joint is composed of the long bone of the femur resting on the relatively flat plateau of the tibia (the primary bone of the lower leg). The femoral condyles transmit the weight of the body to the smooth, cartilage-covered menisci of the tibia. The patella, or kneecap, is not truly a component of the joint. The joint is bound tightly together by four ligaments, which are small bands of dense connective tissue. Within the deep notch of the femur, “crossing” from anterior to posterior, and vice versa, run the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments.
To either side of the joint, providing stability against forces applied to the sides of the knee, are the medial and lateral collateral ligaments. It was one of these, the LCL, that Hess felt give way in the first takedown of the first round, well before anyone but the fighter and the referee noticed anything amiss.
While I did suspect that the knee was damaged earlier in the fight, I was incorrect in blaming the 2nd round heel hook. But Hess was trying to avoid Shlemenko’s stand up game for obvious tactical reasons. Here is the view of the fight and current situation from the figthter himself, interview via MMA Junkie.
Hess after tko (knee injury) loss at Bellator 20
“The thing is I really didn’t even feel it at the time,” Hess stated in the announcement. “I don’t know if it was my adrenaline, but all I could think about was trying to finish that guy.”
Hess assures fans that the injury is not as bad as it looks in pictures, though doctors say it will take him four to six months to recover.
“I had a chance to watch it on TV after the fight, and I think it really looked a lot worse than it is,” Hess said. “It’s a bad tear, but the three other ligaments (the ACL, the PCL and the MCL) are all fine.”
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Hess, who now lives in San Diego, is optimistic that he’ll pick up where he left off when he gets healthy. When he does, he wants a chance to avenge the Shlemenko loss. (The Russian now advances to the season-two finals).
“The thing I’m most upset about is that, in my eyes, I was winning that fight,” Hess stated. “I’d love to get a rematch with [Shlemenko] once I come back.”
Rebney said he’s more than happy to welcome Hess back.
“Jared Hess is really a throwback to the kind of warrior mentality that existed long ago,” Rebney stated. “I can’t say enough about the character that Jared displayed in our cage last week. Immediately after his knee buckled and the referee forced Jared to sit down, he turned to me and started asking me to step in and tell the referee that he should be allowed to finish the fight.
We here at The Clinch wish Hess a speedy and complete recovery.
