Former UFC women’s featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie has not competed inside the octagon in quite some time. Now the former title holder has come forward with some words on what her experience has been like during her time away from the cage.
Speaking on The MMA Hour, as seen within the video below, de Randamie revealed that times have been hard as of late.
“To be honest, there have been some times that I was afraid [my MMA career was over]. Absolutely. But I tried to stay very positive. I’m a very positive human being, and I always kept hope. I knew I had to be patient [with my hand]. I knew it was going to be a big test for me.
“I just couldn’t bear the pain anymore. I could not train through it and my hand was swollen up. I couldn’t even put my hand in a glove. So I decided to go along and have surgery, and everything went perfectly, I was ahead of schedule, and then everything went backwards. The hand started to work against me. I couldn’t train anymore, it was hurting again, so my doctor told me I had to take some time off and relax the hand a little bit and give it time to heal, because, I mean, I’ve been fighting for 19 years.
“I’ve had a lot of battles, so some damage was done. But right now I’m cleared by the doctors, also by the UFC doctors, and I’m ready to go and fully back in training, and I couldn’t be happier. I feel great and I’m getting better and better every day.”
De Randamie has been having heated moments with fight fans as well, the fighter later revealed.
“They absolutely did [tell me to kill myself], and they even made pictures of a gravestone with my name and date of death on it, so it was pretty tough. That’s not cool. People telling you you’re worthless and, yeah, it’s tough. But at the same time, like I said, I’m a very positive person and being able to sometimes share a message with people, to let people know that it’s not okay — nobody likes to hear [those kinds of words], and some people I think don’t realize how much impact those words can have on somebody. I have a very great support group behind me, people who love me and surround me with love. But there are people, children, who maybe don’t have that or have a bad period in life.
“It can happen to any one of us. If somebody tells them to commit suicide or tells them they’re worthless, maybe they decide to act, and that’s the scariest thing about it.”
“I would still make the same decisions, absolutely … Because it makes me the person that I am today. I still stand for what I believe, and if you look back at any interview that I gave before that fight, before the fight with Holly, in every interview I always said I’ll go back to 135. And all of a sudden, it was such a big deal. Which I absolutely understand, and that’s on the side note of the whole Cyborg thing. But the most important thing is to stand for your decisions, and I stand for every decision I make.
“Every decision you make in life has consequences, and I knew the decision that I made would have consequences. Did I know that it was going to be that bad? I mean, not being stripped of the title, but all those negative things people said, did I expect that to happen? Absolutely not. Do I wish that upon anybody? Never, ever, ever. You shouldn’t say those things to people. Would I still do it all over again and make the same decision? Yes, I would, absolutely, and I don’t disagree with my decision. I fully stand behind it.”
