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  - UFC 93: MOHR READY FOR SIVER, LUMPS AND ALL
Friday, January 16, 2009 - by Tom Hamlin - MMAWeekly.com
UFC lightweight Nate Mohr is well acquainted with the mind games brought on by injury. When you're hurt, it’s always a question of whether you’ll ever be better.
Ninety-one seconds into his last fight, Mohr suffered the worst scrape of his career when Manny Gamburyan put him in an Achilles Lock at UFC 79. The hold tore his posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), putting him on the disabled list for the foreseeable future.
When he returned to the mats, he was always asking himself the same thing.
“How far is too far?” he told MMA Weekly Radio. “You’re always thinking about it.”
Mohr spent much of his recovery time in bed, counting the minutes, brushing up on his video game skills. To occupy himself, he went to seminars and watched his teammates at Team Curran compete. As it turns out, that was more unpleasant than bed.
“I had a really hard time going to them, watching the fights,” he said. “I want my team to win and do good, but it did hurt.”
Slowly, Mohr eased himself back into the gym, starting with boxing. He’d go for a day, take a break, and come back for a week. He told his teammates it wasn’t a comeback.
Eight months later, he stepped onto the mats to work on his jiu-jitsu. He had moved from bed to crutches, crutches to walking, walking to six months of rehab. The more he worked, the more confident he was. But there were still doubts.
“Honestly, I’m still getting over it,” he said. “It’s a little better each day. I’ll feel it tweak or twist, and I’ll freak out, but then I’ve had people who’s had injuries before, and they’re like ‘you’re better off now.’”
"I know fighting and I know Nate's abilities from seeing him every day. If he puts it all together, he will impress everyone who watches," his coach, Jeff Curran, told MMAWeekly.com. "Everyone has demons in this sport. Nate faced his and we worked them all out of his game. He will impress and I can't wait to put that in the face of his nay-sayers."
Mohr credits Team Curran for turning him around. Eventually, they worked him up to sparring, and formulated a gameplan for his return. Coach Jeff Curran wanted him to come back in early December, but he thought that was too early. UFC 94 felt right, but when a slot at UFC 93 opened up, he didn’t hesitate to take it.
A few months before the fight, he even branched out, taking UFC light heavyweight James Irvin’s advice to train in Thailand. Mohr logged hours at the Fairtex gym in Bangplee, sharpening his Muay Thai skills.
On Jan. 17, Mohr faces Denis Siver, a former wrestler with submission ability. Siver’s UFC tenure has been less-than-consistent, with only one win in four appearances in the Octagon. But Mohr is serious about the fight, mainly because he wants to make a good impression after a yearlong layoff.
“He’s very hard nosed, and very go-go-go, so I’m excited to get in the ring with him,” said Mohr.
"I am so excited to see Nate reach the potential I know he has in this fight. Some people think Siver is a better striker and they are obviously uneducated," commented Curran. "Nothing Siver has done in the UFC, let alone MMA, suggests he is over Nate in that category. Nate started a little young in the UFC two years ago, but is ready to restart his career."
The questions may always be there, but Mohr will try not to pay attention to them in Dublin as he makes his UFC return.
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