UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling provided an update regarding his health. ‘Funk Master’ recently underwent stem cell therapy ahead of his bout against Henry Cejudo.
Aljamain Sterling defended his title for the second time at UFC 280 against TJ Dillashaw. He defeated Dillashaw in the second round via TKO. It was later revealed that Dillashaw’s shoulder was repeatedly dislocated in camp. He’s since retired after he was told he’s looking at two or more surgeries.
Cejudo’s last appearance in the octagon was back in 2020. He retired on a 6 win streak while holding the UFC flyweight and bantamweight belt. UFC finally signaled they’re ready for his return and he’s back in training.
The bantamweight title bout was rumored for UFC 285 in March. But, Sterling wanted to postpone it due to a bicep injury he was nursing for quite a while. Apparently, the 33-year-old has been dealing with a torn bicep through the last two camps.
Recently, Aljamain Sterling provided more info regarding his injury. As usual, the Jamaican-American athlete documented his activity on his channel. In the recent video, Sterling is in Medellin, Colombia to do a stem cell treatment.
“We’re at BioXcellerator. We just took my blood work, got my height, my weight, and we did a consultation with the doctors. They gave us the rundown of the entire procedures that we’re gonna go through, all the protocol things. Got the IV drip full of vitamins…Everything was good, super cool, super straightforward.” Sterling said.
On a recent podcast, Joe Rogan detailed that many athletes have to go to Germany or Columbia to receive stem cell treatment because there are legal limitations to what’s allowed to do with stem cells in the US due to ethical concerns.
Rogan told Jamahal Hill that Kamaru Usman was also in Columbia during the podcast episode:
” A lot of guys are going to do that bio accelerator place down in Columbia and getting stem cells. It really helped you recover, especially for injuries. It cuts the time down. I was just talking to somebody.”
“They have a lock down on what you’re allowed to do here in the United States, even though it’s highly effective and even though you’re dealing with injured people that really should have every option available to them. Especially when some of these options are proven to be effective.”
Embryonic stem cells are derived from early-stage embryos and have the ability to differentiate into any type of cell in the body.
In contrast, adult stem cells are found in various tissues throughout the body and can differentiate only into the cell types of their tissue of origin. This makes adult stem cells more limited in their therapeutic potential, but they have the advantage of being easier to obtain and less likely to cause immune rejection, as they come from the patient’s own body. US only allows for adult stem cell use.
Embryonic stem cell research has been controversial due to ethical concerns surrounding the use of human embryos, which has led to funding restrictions and limited research in this area. However, there is ongoing research exploring the potential of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are adult cells that have been reprogrammed to behave like embryonic stem cells. iPSCs offer a promising alternative to embryonic stem cells for research and therapeutic applications.