By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Doctors who did the surgery to repair a tear in the right shoulder rotator cuff of WBC minimumweight Silver champion Denver Cuello have recommend a one year layoff before he fights again.

Top orthopedic surgeons Dr. Beng Javier and Dr. Manny Pecson did the arthroscopic surgery  which is described as an invasive surgical procedure in which treatment of the damage of the interior of a joint is performed.

Dr. Pecson told BoxingScene.com/Manila Standard that the surgery took a little over an hour and 15 minutes and that Cuello “should be okay in three months” but made it clear that since the boxer is “not a weekend warrior but a highly competitive athlete in a contact sport” he would need some 6 to 8 months to recover and “at least one year before he fights again.”

WBC president Don Jose Sulaiman had earlier told us Cuello would almost certainly be granted a rematch against Chinese world champion Xiong Zhao Zhong who won a majority decision over the one-handed Cuello at the World Trade Center in Dubai last June 28.

Cuello who injured his shoulder in two previous fights against Ivan Meneses in Mexico and Japan's Takashi Kunishige as late as last April 7 l was disabled early in the title fight with Zhong and battled gallantly with one hand, dropping the champion in the very first round.

Cuello, the devastating southpaw puncher was handicapped by his shoulder injury and  failed to win the title in a close fight.