Daniel Cormier warns Michael Chiesa against back surgery, says he was never the same after

Michael Chiesa recently revealed that Daniel Cormier warned him about the risks associated with back surgery and encouraged him not to go through with it.

During his appearance on today's episode of The MMA Hour, Chiesa told host Ariel Helwani that he had been dealing with a number of injuries that included back injuries and sought advice from other fighters. He mentioned that the UFC Hall of Famer described his experience after undergoing back surgery, which helped him make the informed decision of not undergoing one himself:

"I had a back injury, I've had a history of back problems and the surgery that he [Daniel Cormier] had after the {Derrick] Lewis fight was the same one they wanted to do on me. He was just like, 'Don't do it...I could never train the same and for you, you wrestle, your style, you're not gonna be able to train the same way.'"

'Maverick' brought up that he found alternative methods to deal with the injury and avoided the surgery following Cormier's advice. He credited the UFC Performance Institute for the services and recovery they provide fighters and mentioned that he would have retired if he had the back surgery, saying:

"If I'm gonna get that back surgery, I'm not gonna compete anymore, it's not worth the risk. If I can't train the way I need to train, I'm just putting myself in harms way, but fortunately we were able to pull through and my back's great and I can attribute a lot of that to the UFC PI staff, they took good care of me."

Michael Chiesa noted that he feels great physically heading into his bout with Kevin Holland, so it will be interesting to see how he performs this Saturday.

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Daniel Cormier believes a win over Paulo Costa will earn Khamzat Chimaev a title shot

Daniel Cormier believes that there could be a lot at stake when Khamzat Chimaev and Paulo Costa.

In a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, the UFC Hall of Famer noted that the fight could possibly serve as a title eliminator. 'Borrachinha' has unsucessfully challenged for the middleweight title once before, while 'Borz' has yet to receive a title shot. 'DC' mentioned that he believes that Chimaev could be next in-line should he earn a decisive win over Costa, saying:

"If he beats Paulo Costa, Khamzat Chimaev will have earned himself a title fight at 185 pounds. And I don't think anyone can disagree with that."