UFC hall-of-famer Stephan Bonnar posted videos this past weekend of him angrily shouting at hospital staff and policemen in Nevada after they didn’t give him the pain medication he was asking for.
The 44-year-old Bonnar claimed in the videos that he broke a vertebrae in his back last week during a pro-wrestling match and was demanding to be given Oxycodone, stating that it was the only thing that helped for the pain.
However, it seems that doctor’s had offered him Tramadol instead, which led to Bonnar’s meltdown as he filmed himself berating several doctor’s and nurses while refusing to leave the building.
in a second video outside the hospital left the camera rolling as he began shouting and swearing at police officers who had arrived on the scene due to the disturbance.
“I can’t sit, dumbf—k, my back’s broken!” Bonnar yelled at one of the officers who suggested he take a seat. “My name’s Stephan Bonnar, I’m a UFC Hall of Famer. I don’t have my license on me or my debit card. You know why? Because the pharmacist at CVS forgot to give it back to me. You know when? When she was telling me I couldn’t get my 7.5mg Norcos because, guess why, I recently had 10mg Oxys filled.
“So they could only give me Tramadol. The Tramadol is awful, it doesn’t work. And the Oxycodone 10mgs are all gone. So I came to the emergency room finally after suffering with a fractured lumbar vertebrae, doctor, for a week!”
It was very apparent from his demeanor and disheveled, wild-eyed appearance that Bonnar was not in a good place and it led to several of his fellow UFC veterans reaching out to offer words of support and suggest that he should check himself into rehab.
“I’m praying for you Stephan,” fellow hall-of-famer Mark Colman wrote. “I hope you will seek help you should consider a detox center and then rehabilitation. You can do it I did brother❤️🙏”
“WTF call me homie!!” Bonnar’s fellow TUF Season 1 veteran, Diego Sanchez stated. “you always have a brother to call during challenging waves of life. Love you big bro I’ll keep you in my prayers 🙏🏼💯”
Bonnar has had long standing issues with drug and alcohol abuse that even stem back as far as his appearance on The Ultimate Fight Season 1, where years later it emerged that he’d almost been kicked off the show for escaping the confines of the TUF house to buy alcohol.
Following his rematch with Forrest Griffin in the UFC in 2006, Bonnar tested positive for steroids, while in 2012 after a short-notice fight with Anderson Silva he again received a ban for using steroids, which resulted in a furious Dana White cutting him from the promotion.
In 2018, video emerged of a heavily intoxicated Bonnar being forced out of a vehicle by police, which led to him subsequently being charged with what was at the time his third DUI offense, in addition to resisting arrest.
In 2020, Bonnar revealed that prior to the final fight of his career in 2014 against Tito Ortiz in the Bellator promotion an MRI scan had shown that he may have CTE, which had convinced him not to fight any more after that, while last year he filmed himself yelling at staff of a gym who had asked him to leave for not wearing a mask.
It’s sad to see Bonnar like this and hopefully these disturbing videos will prove to be the catalyst for him to get the help he needs to get his life back on track.
