In the world of professional sports, it’s hard to imagine one that is more physically grueling than mixed martial arts (MMA).
“You have to have a high pain tolerance because you’re using your body as a weapon,” said UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) Hall of Fame featherweight star Cub Swanson. “If you can tolerate more damage, you’re going to make it a lot further in the sport.”
At 42 years old, Cub has seemingly been through it all in his 20 years of cage fighting.
“I’ve broken one or both of my hands fourteen times and had a broken jaw twice. I’ve had reconstructive surgery on my face for a shattered cheekbone, nose and eye socket,” he said. “I’ve had elbow surgery, broken ribs and a torn ACL – which put me out for a year – in addition to having countless dislocated fingers.”
But after all of that, the one issue that threatened to derail his career was chronic back pain that grew progressively worse.
“I’ve had a bad back my whole career,” Cub said. “I’ve known for years that if there was an injury that was going to take me out of the sport, it was my back. I finally hit a breaking point where the pain was unbearable.”
Diagnosed with sciatica and a cyst that was pressing a nerve in his spine, Cub also had also developed arthritis in his back, causing severe pain. Initially, he had the cyst drained and received a cortisone shot to get him through training.
“I felt better immediately,” Cub said. “But after a couple of months it started to wear off. Cortisone shots are allowed outside of competition, but it would have been against the rules for me to get another one close to a fight in UFC. The doctor said the cyst would also just reform in my spine. So, it was just for temporary relief anyway. The pain was so bad, I couldn’t sleep at night.”
After hearing from multiple doctors that he was not a candidate for a disc replacement or a spinal fusion and knowing that the only fixes he had found so far were temporary, Cub was seriously contemplating an early retirement.
“It was heavy on my mind,” he said. “I have a wife and three young kids to think about and that changes your perspective. I knew I wasn’t done fighting at that time, but I also wanted to be able to be there for my family.”
That’s when Cub was introduced to Sohrab Gollogly, MD (Monterey, CA), an endoscopic spine surgeon who offered an ultra-minimally invasive solution that promised relief with little to no downtime.
“At first, I was skeptical,” Cub said. “But my pain was at an all-time high. Dr. Gollogly also did jujitsu; he wasn’t pushing painkillers, and he told me I would walk out of the operating room – so I decided to trust him.”
Using an endoscope about the width of the tip of a pencil, Dr. Gollogly was able to treat Cub’s injury, decompressing the nerve that was causing him so much pain and removing the cyst, while shaving down the bone that was causing the cyst to form in the first place.
“This endoscopic approach helps us avoid making large incisions, which minimizes the damage to muscles and bone around the spine, leading to a faster recovery and fewer surgical complications,” Dr. Gollogly said. “In most cases, patients don’t need narcotics after surgery and return to activities quickly.”
In Cub’s case, not only did he walk out of the operating room, as promised; he and Dr. Gollogly went for a hike together five hours after the surgery.
“Today, my pain is 98% gone and I never took any narcotics,” Cub said. “I listened to my body and eased back into training within three weeks. By eight weeks, I was running full speed. I was able to fight again at the top of my game before I retired.”
Dr. Gollogly says that while Cub is clearly an unusually tough athlete, his experience with endoscopic spine surgery is typical of patients who are good candidates for the ultra-minimally invasive approach.
“Many patients end up healthier than they have been for a number of years,” he said. “I have been doing endoscopic surgery for the last eight years, and while the learning curve is steep, with the right surgeon, it is a good, viable alternative to more invasive procedures.”
Today, Cub has no restrictions in his activities and says in spite of all he’s been through, he still loved MMA.
“It’s the purest sport. It’s one-on-one competition; there’s no team, there’s no ball. It’s just one-on-one combat, and at the end of the fight, you shake hands and admit who was better that night,” Cub said.
And after the surgery, he got to choose when to retire, rather than being forced into a decision by his pain.
“I am extremely grateful to have found Dr. Gollogly,” Cub said. “I feel blessed. We only get so much time in our sport and I’m so proud to have had such a great last fight.”