UFC's Krzysztof Soszynski Nearing Full Health, Hopeful for Return at UFC 140

Krzysztof Soszynski is one of the most exciting and physically imposing fighters in all of MMA.

While he may look like he’s lived an injury free life and his thrilling fights put fans on the edge of their seats, Soszynski has been far from healthy for the past 18 months.

“The Polish Experiment” underwent a seventh knee operation earlier this year, and he’s hoping it is the last time he has to go under the knife. He’s taking all the necessary steps in order to ensure he can return near full-health and the talented light heavyweight is pleased with the progress.

 “I’ve been trying to be a little smarter this time around,” Soszynski recently told BleacherReport.com. “Taking a little bit of extra time (off), I flew up to Victoria, Canada to a place called Synergy Health Management, and it’s a place where a lot of athletes from all walks of life and sports come out and get their rehab done on their injuries.

“I met a great staff, basically three doctors who’ve been around me all around the clock for about three weeks doing a lot of different therapies that I’ve never done before. It’s been going really well, getting some stuff done called PRP, which is where they take the blood out of your veins, they process it, and they put the plasma back into the area that is really injured. It’s just been going really well.”

Prior to the injuries, Soszynski was nothing short of impressive in claiming victories by knockout and submission in his first three appearances in the Octagon.

The talented light heavyweight faced “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 1 runner-up Stephan Bonnar at UFC 110, and that’s where things took a turn for the worst, according to Soszynski.

 “Everything was really good up until UFC 110,” Soszynski said. “The first Stephan Bonnar fight and I think we beat the crap out of each other in that fight. I had sustained a lot of injuries in that fight and in the camp and that’s when everything kind of started. Since then I haven’t been on the mat once grappling with anybody because of my knee issues. That was 17, 18 months ago, so I would say I probably was fighting about 60 percent my last three (or) four fights.

“When you can’t roll, when you can’t grapple, you can’t really do anything wrestling wise. Most of my stuff I’ve been doing is my striking which has definitely improved, but my overall game has kind of gone down because I haven’t been able to work my jiu-jitsu, I haven’t been able to work on my takedown defense or my takedown offense, so hopefully if everything works out in these next few weeks slowly get back in the groove of things and I could be close, maybe I’ll fight again at 85-90 percent. We’ll see.”

In addition to rehabbing the aforementioned injury, Soszynski has kept busy working with numerous world class fighters using a strength and conditioning program he specifically designed.

It’s something he’s passionate about and the feedback he’s received has been priceless.

“It definitely means a lot to me,” Soszynski said. “I’ve been in this sport for almost 10 years now... and I’ve worked really hard to get where I’m at today. It’s nice to be able to come up with something that really works for me and it seems like it’s working for other athletes as well. It’s really nice for me to pass along my nutrition knowledge, my strength and conditioning knowledge, (and) it’s just something I specifically designed for MMA athletes who want to get in great shape.

“Strength wise, speed wise, and performance wise and it’s been working really well for myself, Mark (Munoz), (Jake) Ellenberger just went down to California and he starting using it the last few weeks, (Jason) “Mayhem” Miller’s working on his strength training with me. So, it’s really nice to have good response from these guys and it really shows the system works and hopefully they’ll keep using it.”

Reign Training Center and King’s MMA in California is where Soszynski plans on setting up training once he receives the call from UFC officials regarding his next fight.

He'll join Munoz, Ellenberger, Miller, and a team full of gifted fighters once he returns. Additionally, he’ll continue working with his longtime striking coach Ed Buckley to ensure he’s fully equipped on fight night.

“I think Mark and myself, when we first met we kind of hit it off really well and he invited me out to come to his gym,” Soszynski said. “It was really hard to find training partners at Team Quest and I was in Australia with Ed Buckley, Mark was there and we just started chatting about me coming down and training from time to time at his gym. I had a chance to go out there after my fight with Stephan Bonnar and I feel in love with his gym, the attitude, and just everyone that was there.

“On top of that, King’s MMA and the relationship we have with Raphael Cordeiro and his crew. It’s great, it’s nice to have a big family of guys that you can work with on a daily basis, and progress and get better.”

While he knows his time in the sport may be limited, Soszynski is taking all the necessary steps required to compete against the best the light heavyweight division has to offer.

On where he’d like to fight upon his return, Sosynski would like the opportunity to showcase his skills in Toronto later this year.

“I had a chance to be there at (UFC) 129 in Toronto, the first show, and it was an amazing atmosphere," Soszynski said. “The crowd was tremendous, great fans overall, and I’ve fought in Montreal, I’ve fought in Vancouver, and I would definitely love to fight in Toronto as well.

"The Mecca of any sport in Canada is Toronto and it’d be an amazing opportunity for me to be in the Octagon there and fighting for the UFC in front of the great fans in Toronto. So, yeah, just very excited and like I said ‘Just waiting on that call from Joe Silva and hopefully if everything works out, I’ll be fighting at UFC 140 in Toronto’.”

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