Uriah Hall has moved on from mixed martial arts (MMA) … but it wasn’t easy.
Upon entering Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in April 2013, Hall, 38, was touted as perhaps the best prospect in all of MMA. “Primetime” delivered some of the greatest performances in The Ultimate Fighter’s (TUF) history on season 17, landing a violent spinning wheel kick and knockout from under guard.
Unfortunately for Hall, he never reached the heights that were expected of him. Losing in the finals of TUF 17 to Kelvin Gastelum via split decision, he would, however, go on to still enjoy a solid run in the promotion, going 10-9 with some notable names like Anderson Silva and Gegard Mousasi winding up on his resume.
When Hall recently called it a career, it was more difficult than he anticipated.
“I spent the last 20 years of my life committing myself, my soul, to one attribute, and then all of a sudden, it’s gone, it’s taken away,” Hall said in a media scrum after the Paul-Silva open workouts (h/t MMA Fighting). “It was some really dark, deep places, and luckily, I had the right people around me to support me.
“When I say I felt depressed, I even at one point looked at my firearm, like, ‘Wait a minute, I could go down a really dark path if I don’t get out of this,’” he concluded.
Hall isn’t done fighting despite his MMA retirement. This weekend (Sat., Oct. 29, 2022) in Phoenix, Ariz. on the undercard of the Jake Paul versus Anderson Silva boxing event, Hall faces former National Football League (NFL) running back, Le’Veon Bell.
“If you don’t have the right support system, you won’t get out of it,” Hall said. “If you look at like, people like Robin Williams, all those type of people, you’re like, ‘How the f—k did you kill yourself?’ I get it. At that moment, I finally f—king understood.”