Thiago Alves has revealed that he’s opted to take a full year out from fighting as he looks to heal from a number of injuries and re-find the form that made him one of the most feared strikers in the welterweight division.
“Following my chest surgery, my management and myself have decided to take this year off to fix my left knee as well as all my other little injuries to come back stronger than ever in 2013 to make another run for the title and get it this time. I should be back by June 2013,” Alves said in a statement released yesterday.
The surgery he mentions was to fix a torn pectoral muscle which forced him to pull out of a fight at UFC 149 back in June.
Perhaps a break away from fighting is a good idea for Alves as he’s certainly had a tough few years in and out of the Octagon since losing to Georges St.Pierre in a title fight in the summer of 2009.
Since then he’s won just two of his last five fights and also had a serious health scare when a pre-fight CAT scan prior to UFC 111 in 2010 revealed that he had an Arteriovenous malformation in his brain which thankfully was able to be fixed via an operation.
