Li Jingliang Injury: How Did the UFC Welterweight Injure His Spine? Has He Recovered Now?

Welterweight UFC fighter Li Jingliang was soaring high in his career and achieving amazing records in MMA when an injury derailed his momentum. The Chinese mixed martial artist who had no plans of becoming a combat sports athlete was taking over the UFC world by a twist of fate. Unfortunately, just like every star has setbacks, he too, had to suffer from a devastating incident. He was supposed to be returning against Michael Chiesa at UFC 287. Unfortunately, he had to withdraw from the fight because of a spine injury.

Let’s get to know more about the setback and how he overcame the physical and mental stress that came from the spine injury.

What happened to Li Jingliang? Did Chinese WW undergo surgery?

‘The Leech’ was very vocal about his physical state after withdrawing from the fight and even came on social media to talk about it. He revealed that the spine injury happened during the fight camp for UFC 287 and it was a result of the accumulated effect of several incidents and not one incident. The welterweight fighter had given a detailed account of what happened to him on Instagram and even shared the X-rays.

Li had also posted a video of his diagnosis in the hospital and what it all meant for him in the future. He revealed that the spine injury happened due to several months of training before the fight. it escalated especially because of his extra BJJ training along with the wrestling work he had to put up to beat his opponent, who was good at submissions.

He further wrote, “I’d been waiting for too long for my moment since last year so I tried to power through it until I reached a point where the pain was worsening and expanding across my entire upper body; no amount of physical therapy or ibuprofen was able to fix the problem; and my fight preparation was completely stalled because of it. When the doctors explained to me how dangerous it would be for me to keep pushing my limits, I decided to wise up and take their advice to let my body heal.”

He knew the responsibility he had towards his fans and his family, but he still put his ego aside and decided to heal to come back stronger.  ‘The Leech’ is a huge name in China but he had to disappoint his fans and say that he had a nerve compression that put pressure on his spine and he had to get an MRI as soon as possible. Li was also candid about what the doctors had suggested.

Li Jingliang discusses injury struggles and reveals another similar injury

Li also revealed that his doctors suggested that he had to undergo surgery but he was apprehensive about it. He wanted to find a different way to recover and heal his spine rather than undergo surgery. He said, “Doctors abroad may have recommended surgery. The doctor inside is a radiologist.” 

It also came to light that this spine injury is not the first time that he hurt the same area. He finally revealed the secret that in 2018, he had a similar sort of injury which might have been the reason for the second one as well. Because there was no proper treatment done during the first injury, the same place was hurt again and it escalated. The same place was hurt the second time when he started his training for UFC 287.

The generally strong-minded fighter said that he had to go through a lot of hardships and kept on taking painkillers at night to reduce the immense pain. Apart from the physical pain, he was also going through mental stress because many people were criticizing him for neglecting his health. However, he bounced back and said that he does not care about what people say about him because most people cannot do what he is doing.

Nevertheless, the good news is that he is coming back for UFC 305 completely healed and recovered from the injury without any surgeries. He did get hurt in 2023, but within one year he is recovered and going to appear in the Octagon with his amazing fighting skills.