Do knee injuries end a fighters prime? (In general)

[Kyojiro Kagenuma]

Like any sport, your legs are essential for success in MMA. With damaged knees you can’t run the same, you can be explosive to the same degree, your kicking can be diminished etc.
There are plenty examples of fighters not being the same following such injuries ie shogun or tony Ferguson.

Knowing this, is there any fighters who have returned from a major knee/leg injury and still performed as good as they once did. The closest example to this is Gsp who dominated the division after an ACL injury however he was less explosive than before. His success most likely is an outlier due to his unprecedented skill.

So any examples of fighters who came back from knee or leg injuries as good as they were before?

Knee injuries can absolutely fuck you for life. Just ask my dad. He could barely walk by age 40. Needed surgery bad.

 

[wheel2wheel]

Depends on the injury and how you recovered from it, knee injuries are NBA players' worst nightmare.

Maybe same can be said about mma fighters.

 

[DestinedAussie]

Ugh Brandon Roy too( and Greg Oden for that matter) could just never heal from those injuries! This man could jump out of the gym and poof all gone overnight.

He also got better when the game was on the line. When he got hurt IMO it was on track to be hall of fame and still getting better.

Greg Oden was equally as sad but the guys body was broken before the NBA. He had 2 different lengthed legs which I assume is where all his problems came from.