February 16, 2021
Power MMA and MMA/UFC Sports Medicine Surgeon Joins UAMS Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine in Northwest Arkansas
Brad Reeves, M.D., orthopaedic sports medicine surgeon specializing in knee and shoulder reconstruction and trauma joins UAMS Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine in northwest Arkansas.
Updated April 7, 2021-By Jennifer Gurley
Brad Reeves, M.D., a board-certified orthopaedic sports medicine surgeon specializing in knee and shoulder reconstruction and trauma, has joined the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences as an assistant professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery practicing at UAMS Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine in northwest Arkansas.
Reeves serves as the Head Orthopaedic Surgeon for the Razorback football team and Co-Team Physician for all 19 Razorback sports programs at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Through the new partnership with Razorback Athletics, UAMS Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine provides comprehensive care for 465+ Razorback student-athletes.
Reeves brings extensive experience serving as a team physician at both the professional and collegiate levels, including USA Baseball, USA Boxing, the University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University, Missouri Southern State University, and the University of Sioux Falls. He has also cared for athletes in minor league baseball, the NBA’s G League, the NCAA’s women’s basketball tournament, and during many major sporting events.
Reeves with Gilbert Burns, UFC World Welterweight title contender.
Reeves is the medical director and head team physician for Sanford MMA, a professional mixed martial arts team with approximately 40 fighters, including current and former world champions such as Gilbert Burns, Ryan Bader, Robbie Lawler, Michael Chandler, and many more.
Reeves provides comprehensive care for athletic injuries and patellar instabilities, including knee scopes, meniscal repair and transplants, ACL and PCL reconstruction, shoulder reconstruction, and labral repairs. He is a Certified Ringside Physician through the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and Association of Ringside Physicians (ARP).
Reeves’ expertise, guidance, and commitment to the health of the mixed martial artists has made quite the impression. “Having Dr. Reeves and Sanford in my corner makes me more confident when the bell sounds,” said Robbie Lawler, two time UFC welterweight champ. “The expertise and care is world-class and has made a huge difference in my preparation and recovery. He’s going to make sure everyone is healthy before they go into a fight and then again after a fight. That’s a blessing.”
Reeves with Robbie Lawler, two-time UFC Welterweight champion.
An Arkansas native, Reeves received his bachelor’s degree from Hendrix College in Conway and earned his medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He completed an orthopaedic surgery residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS, followed by an AO Trauma Fellowship at the Elizabethian Hospital in Mainz, West Germany, and Triemlispital in Zurich, Switzerland.
Reeves continued his training through a specialized sports medicine fellowship in knee and shoulder reconstruction at the Oklahoma Center for Athletes in Oklahoma City.
Upon completion of his fellowship training, Reeves spent the first seventeen years of his career in Joplin, Missouri, where he founded the Freeman Sports Medicine and Rehab Center. He was then recruited to Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he served as the Director of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine until 2019, when he and his wife, Debbie, returned to Arkansas.
“Dr. Reeves and I were medical school classmates, and it has been fun to watch his career blossom in Missouri and South Dakota,” says C. Lowry Barnes, M.D., Professor and Chair of the UAMS Department of Surgery. “We are so fortunate that he and Debbie, his wife, have returned home to Arkansas and even more excited that he decided to join our growing team in northwest Arkansas.”
Reeves joins Wes Cox, M.D., Chad Songy, M.D., Ramon Ylanan, M.D., Larry Balle, M.D., Navin Kilambi, M.D., Shea Brannan, M.D., and Tyler CarlLee, M.D., at the UAMS Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine locations in Fayetteville and Lowell.
“The depth and breadth of his experience in sports medicine is not only impressive, but truly unique. His work with MMA is distinctive, and I am not sure that anyone else in Arkansas offers this kind of experience at such a high level,” said Barnes. “Brad is part of our mission to help provide the best orthopaedic care closest to home and personifies our commitment to Northwest Arkansas.”