For Chas Skelly, were broken bones, torn ligaments the recipe for UFC success?

(This story first ran at WFAA.com.)

Chas Skelly once sat on the sidelines for more than two years. But it may have been the best thing that ever happened to his fighting career.

“I had been fighting for about a year or so, and then I got hurt in a Bellator fight against Daniel Pineda,” Skelly told USA TODAY Sports and MMAjunkie. “He got me in a toehold and actually broke my foot and tore some tendons. I opted not to have surgery. I should have, most likely, but I didn’t have surgery and I did rehab. It took a long time to get better. It’s better now, but it took a long time. “

That bout took place in May 2010, and for the record, Skelly still won. But it would be a little more than 24 months before Skelly returned to action, and things changed in the span between those two fights. The gym where he had been training began to dissolve, and Skelly knew he needed to make a change. He knew Texas’ Team Takedown was making big strides in the sport, and he decided to pursue a spot on the roster.

“The injury put me out for a while, about a year and a half or so,” Skelly said. “When I came back to training, a lot of the guys that I had trained with were either not around anymore or were hurt. I didn’t have anybody to train with, really. I heard that Team Takedown was about 45 minutes from where I lived, so I just started showing up. I just went out there one day and showed up for a workout. They said I could keep coming back for a workout, so I did. I started showing up for every workout, and they eventually asked me to be on the team.”

Skelly, who was a state champion wrestler at Texas’ Azle High School who went on to earn NAIA All-American honors at Oklahoma City University, was a natural fit with the wrestling-based squad, which also includes UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks and heavyweight contender Jared Rosholt.

Becoming Team Takedown member can provide a prospective fighter a real jolt to his career, as team execs pay athletes a salary that allows them to focus solely on training rather than working another job to make ends meet. Team Takedown banks on the investment providing results in the form of percentages gathered from a fighter’s future earnings.

“It was a huge moment for me,” Skelly said. “I could focus just completely on training and not on having to work and train at the same time. It’s pretty important for me to be able to focus on nothing but training and to have actual coaches coaching me in every aspect.”

Once he was fully recovered, Skelly rattled off four straight wins, earning himself an invitation to compete at April’s “UFC on FOX 11: Werdum vs. Browne” event. Unfortunately for Skelly, things didn’t go his way. He wounded opponent Mirsad Bektic in the second round of their preliminary card fight, but he delivered a few illegal knees in the process of hunting for the finish, losing a point when referee Jorge Ortiz halted the bout due to the infraction.

The final round was razor-thin, but Bektic was awarded a majority decision with scores of 29-27, 29-27 and 28-28.