Robert Lucarelli: Road to Recovery

I recently spoke with Robert Lucarelli. Robert fought at UFC 2 in a losing battle to Orlando Weit in just under 3 minutes due to knees. Mr. Lucarelli holds victories in submission grappling in 1998 NAGA Novice Super Heavyweight. IGC opening match winner. He is a BJJ Blue Belt/Purple Belt under Marcio Simas. He trained catch wrestling under coach Billy Robinson. He also worked as a licensed massage therapist for a Florida Hospital and taught High Intensity Strength Training for Golds Gym. Though he no longer fought professionally, he continued to teach and train until his body could no longer handle it.

Mr. Lucarelli mentioned that he was last active in the IGC submission grappling tournament and was training UFC fighters Seth Petruzelli, and Luigi Fioravanti.

Unfortunately, all of this exercise took a toll on his body. He has since had a total right hip replacement. Pins in his shoulder from torn rotator cuff and back fusion L5-S1. The shoulder and hip are better, but the back fusion failed to grant onto the bone. The section that affected his nerves were neglected and was unable to walk for nearly two years. Next month (May 2014), he is having the L3-L4 fusion to get feeling and function back into his legs and also fix L5-S1. He then has to debate getting vertebrates fused in his neck.




He has waited a decade to fix his problems and it will take over a year for recovery if he gets all of the surgeries completed. His final statement was, "If I only knew in UFC II what I learned a decade later, I would have finished off my opponent."

Robert is now residing in Florida and can be reached on his Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/rrluca

Until Next Time:
-BJ
@gurugrapher