When Kevin Lee made his walk to the Octagon last week for his interim title fight against Tony Ferguson at UFC 216, mixed martial arts (MMA) fans were almost instantly informed “The Motown Phenom” was suffering from a staph infection on his chest.
UFC commentator Joe Rogan pointed it out on the broadcast, and UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier followed up by confirming he believed it was, in fact, a staph infection. On a recent episode of his podcast ‘Talk & Talker,’ Cormier discussed being a part of the UFC 216 broadcast and noted that the commentary team was told not to mention the staph infection – but stated he did anyway (quotes via MMA Mania):
“So we’re on air, right, and Rogan goes ‘is that staph?’” Cormier said. “And somebody in my ear, I don’t know who it is, goes ‘don’t say nothing.’ And I was like ‘What the hell? Do I address this, or do I not say anything?’”
“So I was like ‘it is.’ I couldn’t help myself, I go ‘it is staph.’ Because it’s big and red, and raised up.”
Lee has noted before that having staph may have impacted his ability to cut weight as well as his performance inside the Octagon, as he suffered a third-round submission loss via triangle choke to Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight title. Cormier also discussed the negative affects staph has on an athlete’s performance:
“The issue is you can take antibiotics to get better. But again, antibiotics, it’s the devil when you’re getting ready for a fight because it f*cks with your cardio,” Cormier explained. “You don’t really have much of an option in terms of feeling better when you have staph.
“In training, you go ‘oh my goodness, what is this? It might me staph.’ You stop, you get on antibiotics, and you get better. When you’re a week from the biggest fight of your career, you go ‘oh shit, this is staph, but I gotta keep training.’ You don’t have the option to just shut it down.”
Cormier believes Lee didn’t get a ‘fair shake’ due to the fact that he was getting tired as the fight went on, while Ferguson was on his game and getting better:
“For Kevin Lee, he had no option because he couldn’t not fight,” Cormier said. “And you saw it, I mean between the second and third round, he told his corner, he goes ‘I’m just so tired.’”
“It’s sad because he didn’t get a fair shake, but the reality is, Tony Ferguson was on his game. And it was just getting worse because Tony was just getting better as the fight was going on.”
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