Nearly two weeks ago now, popular UFC middleweight knockout artist Uriah Hall had a health scare ahead of his fight against Vitor Belfort.
And though he was on weight, he did not make it the scales, and the fight was then cancelled.
It was meant to be Belfort’s retirement fight, and the UFC legend was devastated.
However, it wasn’t the typical circumstances surrounding a failed weigh in attempt, because Hall’s condition was serious.
Now, for the first time Uriah himself gives extreme detail about that day, and what happened when he was fading in and out of consciousness.
Check it out: (Via the UFC Unfiltered podcast)
“I was on weight actually. I was like 185.7 or something. I just didn’t make it to the scale,” he said during an appearance on the UFC Unfiltered podcast.
“I was a wreck. I really was. I was calling my mom almost every night and my sister. I was kind of just crying. I can’t believe I got to that point,”
“A couple of days before I flew out to St. Louis, the same thing happened to me again, my body went weird, like I couldn’t digest food again and I was having problems digesting food. You’ve got to intake a lot of water and my body just wasn’t getting rid of it. Of course, I was like screw it. I’m going to do it anyway. I don’t have any sick days. I don’t complain.”
“I was like 208 when I got there. Normally for me, fight week, I’m always like 199 or 198. I was heavy already and then I got up to 215, and I was like, s–t, this water isn’t coming out of my body. What’s going on? I went into overdrive. I’m working twice as hard now. I started cutting weight from 206, and I’ve never cut from 206 before.”
“Within that timeframe, within 24 hours, I must have lost 20-something pounds. I got to 187 and I remember sitting in the tub and saying I’m done. If I go any further than this my body is going to shut down. But as a warrior and that mentality, I was like f— it. I don’t want to pay that fine. I’m going to make weight. I’m disciplined. So I pushed my body to that brink and I made that 185.something. They had to kind of hold on to me and pick me up. I’m walking to the elevator. They’re still holding me. Once I got to the elevator, I couldn’t stand anymore and I just passed out.”
“In that dramatic moment when I passed out, I kept waking up. As much as I was waking up, I was in and out of consciousness. I did know what was happening, but I couldn’t control it. I wake up and I was in the elevator. I woke up and I was on the floor. I think they were trying to revive me or whatever and I was punching. I kept swinging because I couldn’t control my body.”
“I was just swinging. I was trying to fight out of it. The next thing I know the EMT was there. I was throwing punches at them. People were holding me down. I was asking for water. They put me on a stretcher. I woke up again. They were trying to find a vein. They couldn’t find a vein, so they kept sticking me over and over. I felt pain and I just kept swinging again. They were like, ‘Hold him down. Hold him down.’ I passed out and woke up in the hospital.”
“Later on, I kind of came to, slowly. I just came back to my senses, but it was one of the most horrific experiences I’ve ever went through.”
