Oktagon MMA light heavyweight and heavyweight double champ Will Fleury has been soaking all in since reaching the top of the European promotion, claiming a second belt at heavyweight last month with a win over Lazar Todev.
Yet while he’d no doubt like to start plotting his next move, Fleury has been held up by an injury sustained in the Todev fight.
“It’s been good, but I’ve had a frustrating situation. I broke my thumb pretty badly in the fight. That now requires surgery. I’m going to get that surgery on Monday. That’s going to be eight weeks of healing roughly, and then another probably two, two and a half months of getting back in condition,” Fleury (15-3, 1NC) told Cageside Press at this past weekend’s Oktagon 69. “And then I’m in fight shape. So it’ll probably be about four and a half months before I can fight. That pisses me off a lot but at the same time, having just won the belt, it’s not a bad place to be.”
The mental struggle of being forced to sit on the sidelines is real, but Fleury has been here before, having dealt with injuries more than once. “I’m good at dealing with it now. It is hard. Honestly, not being able to get out kind of the frustrations of life by training, it’s something I’ve had to adapt to.”
“Eventually there’s going to be a day I can’t do this anymore. I fear that day,” he admitted. As for his thumb and current downtime, “I know at least I’m going to be able to train in a couple of months, or weeks. The main thing is, I can still use my legs, I can practice my kicks, I can do whatever. It’s just my hand that’s injured. After the surgery there’s two weeks of zero exercise. That’s going to be tough. For me, I’m still training kind of twice a day, just messing around, not as intense but just playful. So I’m going to find that really hard.”
When it does come time for Will Fleury to make his next move, it might be a drop to middleweight. Fleury has talked about pursuing a third title, and favors a fight with UFC veteran Makhmud Muradov, who is expected to fight for gold later this year.
“I want to fight the best guys. Right now it looks like the best guys are at middleweight, so if they’re there, cool I’m going to be at middleweight. If the best guys start to be at heavyweight, if they sign, thanks, and if people want to see a rematch between me and [Lazar] Todev, cool I’ll go and do that,” stated Fleury. “Honestly, whatever is going to sell and look class and be like ‘oh sh*t this guy is an amazing fighter.’ Whatever fight I have to do to do that, to keep proving ‘f*ck you I’m the best guy here,’ I’ll go and do that.”
Watch our full interview with Oktagon MMA double champ Will Fleury above.
