Dhiego Lima suffered a spinal injury more than a decade ago, and the pain is finally gone.
The 31-year-old welterweight competed in 22 professional MMA fights, plus five amateur bouts and a half-dozen exhibition contests on The Ultimate Fighter over the course of 15 years, and the neck problem was always there, a constant reminder of his high school football days.
On a three-fight winning streak in the octagon now, Lima felt the need to go under the knife, something he “should have done a long time ago,” and fix it after a training session that left him “crying in pain for two weeks.