Right Knee Healing Well, Cat Zingano May Now Have a Tear in Her Left Knee

Cat Zingano was supposed to have been the coach opposite UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey on the current season of The Ultimate Fighter. That was until she tore the right anterior cruciate ligament in her knee prior to the start of filming in early June.

It has now been about three months since she had reconstructive surgery, and the right knee is healing according to schedule, according to Dr. Ronald S. Kvitne of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic in Los Angeles.

“Cat is now three months out from her right knee anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction,” he stated in a video Zingano posted on her Facebook page. “She’s three months out; her knee looks great. She’s got almost perfect motion, she’s got great strength, she’s got excellent stability. She’s about three months from getting back in the ring and starting to spar.”

The bad news, however, is that Dr. Kvitne believes Zingano may have a torn meniscus in her left knee.

Dr. Kvitne indicated that they were going to perform an MRI on the left knee to verify the torn meniscus, and if it is confirmed, they will immediately perform surgery hoping to avoid any further delay in her return.

“The only problem is the left knee appears to have somewhere along the line gotten into trouble with a medial meniscus tear,” said Dr. Kvitne. “So we’ll confirm that today with an MRI. If she does may have a torn meniscus, she’ll need surgery fairly quickly, so she can get back on track with the rehab.”

Dr. Kvitne believes that even if the torn meniscus is confirmed, they can perform surgery quickly enough that Zingano’s return to the Octagon won’t suffer from any further delays.

“We think three months from now she’d be back in the ring training, sparring; so fighting in about four to six months from now,” he said.

Zingano has a spotless record in mixed martial arts with eight victories and no defeats. Only one of her fights has gone to a decision; she has finished her other seven opponents.

She most recently stopped Miesha Tate via TKO stoppage as part of the TUF 17 Finale in April.

When Zingano fell out of filming for the eighteenth season of TUF, Tate immediately agreed to take her place opposite Rousey.

With Zingano out until early 2014, Tate also jumped the line ahead of her in terms of a shot at Rousey. Despite coming off of the loss to Zingano, Tate will rematch Rousey in the UFC 168: Weidman vs. Silva 2 co-main event on Dec. 28 in Las Vegas.

Tate and Rousey first fought under the Strikeforce banner in March 2012. Rousey submitted Tate via armbar near the end of the opening round to take the Strikeforce women’s bantamweight championship that Tate had held coming into the fight.

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