Rare Disease Keeping UFC Heavyweight Todd Duffee Sidelined

UFC heavyweight fighter, Todd Duffee is a sight to behold. The man’s strength and dominance inside the eight-sided cage is rarely duplicated.

His biggest battle as of late is coming outside the cage in the form of a painful and rare nerve condition known as Parsonage-Turner syndrome. This disorder affects the nerve bundles in the arms, shoulders and chest (basically the entire upper body) and causes weakness, numbness and pain.

“It’s one of those moments where your whole perspective on life changes and you have to start kind of looking at things differently,” Duffee said this week on the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” program.

“I’ve talked to all the therapists I’ve worked with and the doctors,” Duffee said, “and they’re all very confident that I can come back inside a year…Already I’ve had a very fast recovery. I’m very advanced.”

Duffee was under heavy consideration for an appearance on this year’s New Years card featuring the rematch between Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman, but until this condition clears up he will be forced on the shelf and unable to compete.