While many of us, me included saw young Australian, Jett Lawrence as the next GOAT, the last two years have been cruel to the HRC man, as he has missed championships due to injury now. Last year it was first real taste of the horrible injury cloud that has caused so many riders to miss major championship in the peak of their career.

Every single legend in our sport has missed battling for a championship, so less than others and some just have a horrible run, similar to that of Jeffrey Herlings and Ken Roczen, who both probably deserve a lot more success than they have had.

Lawrence, missed most of the 2024 motocross season after crashing at his private test facility in Florida. The Australian suffered a low-speed crash that injured his thumb and was transported to hospital where the injury was diagnosed as a torn ulnar collateral ligament, or UCL.

Lawrence has a procedure on Thursday, July 4, at the Steadman Clinic in Colorado, after which he focused on making a return in time for the SuperMotocross opener on September 7 in Concord, North Carolina, or which he won, taking the 2024 Supermotocross World championship.

“It’s obviously a bummer, but it’s part of our sport,” Lawrence said at the time. “It was honestly a pretty small crash, but it is what it is. I’ve been pretty lucky with injuries in my career so far, so I guess it’s just my turn. I was happy with the progress we’ve made in the championship since my setback at Hangtown, and I was excited to try and keep my championship. That obviously won’t happen now, but I have a good team around me and will focus on getting healthy again and coming back at 100 percent. I look forward to cheering on Hunter and doing whatever I can to help him the rest of the series.”

Then, this year, while battling to defend his 2024 AMA supercross championship, Lawrence again had a major injury, from a minor occurrence on the track. Lawrence tore his ACL in the third race of the Glendale, Arizona, Monster Energy Supercross Triple Crown and will be out of competition for four months, the rider updated on social media. That effectively means he will miss the remainder of the 2025 Supercross season and he will not have an opportunity to defend his 2024 championship.

“A little update of the weekend and it wasn’t very ideal,” Lawrence said in a video posted on Instagram. “I got the results today and ended up tearing my ACL. It is cooked, in other words. I had a slight tear in my meniscus, so I’m going for surgery [Tuesday] at 11:30. Going to get that fixed up and have four months, I think it is, to recover. The recover time is [what] the doctor said. It’s not ideal. I’m really bummed. I was hoping the worst would be bone bruising, but sadly not.”

We all know, Lawrence, like Herlings wanted records and while “The Bullet” still has five World motocross championships and a record breaking 107 Grand Prix wins, he could easily have become the GOAT of GP racing had he not suffered so many injuries. He still has the chance to become the third most successful if he can win this years World title, or next years. He would pass Joel Robert who has six titles, but only 50 GP wins. I would tip Herlings to become the third most successful GP rider of all time, but as I said, he would have been the GOAT.

Now, another very talented rider, who also wanted records, is finding out, chasing records isn’t as easy as he might have hoped. Lawrence still has two AMA 250 motocross championships, two Supermotocross World championships, an AMA 450 supercross championship and an AMA 450 motocross championship, so he has hardly failed and already a legend of the sport, as such a young age, but damn, I hope he body carries him through his career and doesn't let him down.

Interestingly, Herlings didn't have as much trouble with injuries in his first four years as a pro, but from 2014 until now, its been horrendous how often he has missed a title due of injury. The flying Dutchman suffered to championship losing injuries in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Lawrence was also more or less injury free to win his titles in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and the start of 2024, and since that injury during last years AMA Nationals, it's been painful to watch. I hope the motocross God's are a little friendlier to the Aussie, than they were to the Dutchman.

Being that the two injuries by Lawrence have come from minor on track situations, I sure hope he isn’t going to have a career similar to other riders who have missed out on titles so many times due to injury. For now, rest up young man, and lets all hope he is back in time to win himself the 2025 AMA 450 motocross championship and add another Supermotocross championship to his name.