Yahoo: Back from paralysis, Escovedo scores KO of the Year candidate

[Clark Kent]

03-22-2010 05:10 AM:

Staph infection is no joke. We saw several fighters have to pull out of big UFC bouts in the second half of 2009 because they were struggling with the ailment. As bad as it may have gotten for guys like Gabriel Gonzaga, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Diego Sanchez and even Kevin Randleman over the last few years, but no one has a story quite like Cole Escovedo. The former WEC featherweight champ's case of staph was so bad that it left him paralyzed from the waist down in 2007. Escovedo (16-4) added to one of the best comeback stories in MMA history by picking up his fifth straight win. He did so in a Japanese ring at DREAM 13 where he scored a dynamite head kick knockout of fellow WEC veteran Yoshiro Maeda.

Maeda, who lost a WEC bantamweight title shot against Miguel Torres at WEC 34, looked sluggish throughout the fight. Maeda (26-8-2) essentially ducked into the finishing kick by Escovedo.

MMAWeekly told the inital story of Escovedo's struggles with staph:

According to a post by Laura Escovedo on MMA.tv and confirmed by Reed Harris of the WEC, Cole contracted a staph infection back in December that went unchecked because he just thought it was a spider bite or something of that sort. By the time he was diagnosed in January with staph, the infection made its way into his spine and paralyzed him from the waist down.Cole was hospitalized and underwent an operation to alleviate some of the fluid that had built up on his spine due to the infection. He has since been released from the hospital and is now at home with a walker and is set to begin therapy.

At the time of publication, it was unknown whether Cole’s paralysis is a permanent or, hopefully, a temporary condition.

​

SI.com's Josh Gross expanded on the story and the horrors of Escovedo's type of staph, MRSA.



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Cagewriter is an MMA blog edited by Steve Cofield.