Junior dos Santos out 12 weeks following shoulder surgery

Junior dos Santos is facing a lengthy absence after recently undergoing shoulder surgery.

Dos Santos beat Ben Rothwell at UFC Fight Night 86 on April 10, but revealed on his Instagram account that he paid a price for the victory.

Despite being Brazilian I've never played soccer very well, I also wasn't good enough on swimming or running or any other sports like those. But luckily I found myself in the fight world and I can say, I'm good (at) it.

But fighting demands a lot and sometimes even in victory we can get hurt. I could say that now would be a very difficult time for me, but I actually feel blessed. I hurt my shoulder a bit but I won a great fight, and I'm having a excellent care so that very, very soon I will be 100% again.

I had a small shoulder surgery this morning and as my good friend Doctor Howard Gelb who took great care of me said, everything went perfectly and guess what! I'm already at home relaxing.

I just would like to let you guys know through me

The former UFC heavyweight champion said Wednesday that he expects to resume training in 12 weeks.

"I had surgery to repair my labrum and a level four injury on my rotator cuff," dos Santos told Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting on Wednesday. "Level four is a serious injury, so I had to do this surgery."