Chase “The Vanilla” Gorilla Sherman stepped in the octagon at UFC on ESPN 22 earlier this month to face former champion Andrei Arlovski. Sherman was originally scheduled to face Parker Porter at the event, but Porter was forced to withdraw due to injury.
Sherman who hails from Mississippi did this entire camp in Colorado after recently leaving his full-time job as a firefighter in Mississippi to dedicate his life to his fighting career, was thrown a curveball with the change of opponent, no disrespect to Porter, but Arlovski was a step up in competition for Sherman. A step up that Sherman had no problem accepting as a replacement.
Sherman lost that fight via unanimous decision 29-28 on all three judge’s cards. Prior to that loss, Sherman had been on a 4 fight winning streak 3 on the regional scene, and 1 win in his return to the UFC last May in Jacksonville. One of the staples of his game had been powerful leg kicks. In 2 of his wins on his climb back to the octagon, he ended the night for both Jeremy May and Rashaun Jackson with calf kicks that broke the legs of both men. So it was odd to me that while in his bout with Arlovski he landed kicks in each round, he wasn’t firing off with the same power that he had recently been displaying.
I recently found out from Sherman himself that he injured his left leg warming up moments before he made the walk at the UFC APEX. Another bump in the road leading to this particular fight night, and with Sherman being the professional he is, he made no excuses, did not even consider withdrawing despite knowing he was going in much less than 100%, he was there to fight, and did just that.
Once he returned home, he had some testing done at the world-renowned Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine where they discovered that Sherman needed surgery on the meniscus in his left knee.
Yesterday Sherman had surgery performed by Dr. James Andrews, the man who has saved the careers of more athletes than any doctor I know of. If you need the best in the business to get you up and running again, Dr. Andrews is the only choice.
I was able to get an update on Sherman from his fiance’ Crystal, which she also shared via social media
- “Everything went great! They removed the bucket handle piece of the meniscus that was catching and kept the majority of his meniscus intact, which is great news. they also cleaned up under his patella.”
As you can see in the photo Sherman was relaxing comfortably in his room post-surgery and is expected to make a full recovery and resume his career hopefully before the end of the year.
I will have Sherman on THe CAGE-SIDE with Christopher James Show sometime next week so we can check on his health, and he will also fill us in on his first camp in Colorado.
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Christopher James has been in the MMA industry for 15 years, Working as a ring announcer for promotions like the XFC, Island Fights, Combat Night and Fight Nights Global during his career. Chris’ love for the sport and the athletes that partake in it led him to writing and doing face to face interviews with the athletes he admired and respected. Chris isn’t conventional by any stretch of the imagination, he has his own style, and takes pride in not being a “cookie-cutter” member of the media. Unique and sometimes controversial takes are what he brings to the table, forcing folks to think a little differently about the world of MMA. He also has a love for music as he has been a dj for 25 years and his love for music gets brought to the MMA world when he gets his guests to sing on his weekly show Cage Side with Christopher James which can be seen Wednesday nights on FACEBOOK LIVE, and soon via podcast.