Mickey Gall lost to Diego Sanchez by TKO at UFC 235 a couple of weeks ago, and while some observers suggested that the 27-year-old gassed out during the fight, he has now revealed that there was a more troubling medical reason that he was struggling in the Octagon that night.
“My kidneys were failing,” Gall told Luke Thomas on ‘The MMA Hour’ show. “Before the fight, I didn’t really know. I could feel — I guess, looking back you could tell a couple of warning signs, like something was going on, but I didn’t go to the fight thinking, ‘F—k it, whatever, it’s just kidneys.’ I really didn’t know.
“But then when I got in the fight, I was zapped right away. I was zapped. I re-watched the fight, I’m like in slow motion. I remember struggling for balance, just trying to stay on my feet. It was crazy.”
Gall was taken to hospital after the fight, where he was diagnosed with a serious condition known as Rhabdomyolyis, which results in damaged muscle fibers leaking into the bloodstream, which can lead to kidney failure.
“I did have rhabdo, but they also think it was like a perfect storm of drops in the bucket that made this happen. My stomach was a little off for fight week, I had some diarrhea when I was supposed to be cutting weight. And then I did the weight cut — this weight cut was way easier than my last one.
“I believe sometimes you’ve got to just put the pain in and get through the weight cut. It wasn’t really necessary, I was singing, having a good time, got the weight off.
“At one point I did, when I stood up, I passed out/ Which I didn’t think — at the time, I was like, ‘I don’t know, sometimes people pass out, I guess.’ It was easy to write it off, all the warning signs. Not my stomach or my back or my kidneys, like you don’t know what a kidney feeling weird really is like.”
Gall has now been released from hospital however and he’s already looking ahead to his next fight.
“I’m fine. I’m lucky. Everything’s fine, I love this life. I’m really, really pissed and disappointed the way the fight went. I couldn’t represent and show all my skills, but I’m grateful for this.
“I’m going to get an opportunity to do it again soon. I love this f—ng game. I love this sh-t.”
