Uriah Hall knows he’s probably lucky to be alive right now.
It was just four months ago when Hall was unconscious after suffering the ill effects of a brutal weight cut that landed him in the hospital, which led to the cancellation of his fight against Vitor Belfort.
The harrowing situation had several other fighters shaken as Hall reportedly collapsed on his way to the weigh-ins and now the former “Ultimate Fighter” winner recently addressed the subject after booking his next bout in July.
Hall absolutely believes he almost died as a result of that ill-fated weight cut with only flashes of memory that still exist from that day in St. Louis when he passed out while trying to make it to the scale.
“I was walking to the elevator and boom, just like that, I collapsed,” Hall said when he was speaking to ESPN. “I was in the elevator holding on to my best friend — apparently I bit him, to hold on to him. I passed out again. Woke up and there were EMTs, a guy was trying to get a needle in me, and I remember swinging. I wasn’t in control of my body.
“I woke up in the hospital and was screaming for water. ‘Give me water! Give me water!’ They said, ‘We can’t give you water yet,’ for whatever reason. I grabbed my sister and said, ‘Tell them to please give me a sip of water.’ I never felt so thirsty in my life. They finally gave me a sip, and I passed out.”
“I was in the elevator holding on to my best friend — apparently I bit him, to hold on to him. I passed out again,” ~ Uriah Hall
Hall ended up spending a night in the hospital as a result of the frightening weight cut but he had to wake up to a mountain of criticism being lobbed his way by UFC president Dana White.
After Hall was pulled from the fight card, White criticized the middleweight competitor saying that he didn’t take his training seriously and had heard that he was in Los Angeles just days before his bout hanging out in a nightclub.
Hall can only scoff at those allegations as he admitted to being in Los Angeles for a personal matter just before his fight but it had nothing to do with partying or staying out all night at a club.
As far as the culprit for the weight cut, Hall says there were numerous factors at work, not the least of which was dealing with a stomach illness as well as a personal loss when his head coach Robert Follis took his own life just two weeks out from the event.
“It’s hard for me to digest food. Two weeks prior to the fight, my coach, Robert Follis, took his life. That really affected me. And one of my best friends, we had to stop talking. It just made me really stressed out,” Hall said.
“I’ve cut weight over 20 times. I’m used to it. That one margin of error, that’s what cost me. I neglected a health issue. I didn’t pay attention to my body. My will took over — I would say my ego took over. There’s a time you need to listen to your body.”
Despite that setback ahead of his last scheduled bout, Hall will once again make the cut down to 185 pounds for his next contest as he takes on Paulo Costa in a middleweight bout scheduled for UFC 226 on July 7 in Las Vegas.
“As close as I felt to death, I knew I was good,” Hall said. “It’s a psychological thing, training your body and mind. You got nothing left but there’s that little hope.”
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