Tyson Pedro revealed that he came down with a bad case of Gastroenteritis the night before his UFC 284 appearance.
Tyson Pedro went into his short-notice meeting with Modestas Bukauskas as a significant favorite but failed to secure the victory. Pedro’s relatively flat performance drew the ire of fans, many of which leaned on Tyson Pedro as a sure win on their evening’s betting slips. Taking to Instagram, Tyson Pedro revealed that the night before his scheduled bout at the RAC Arena, he contracted an illness that had him praying to the porcelain god all night long.
“Hey, what’s going on? Just thought I’d do this video now that the dust has settled,” Pedro said. “Well, I wasn’t actually going to do this video because I didn’t think I owed anyone an explanation except to the people that I love. But those people that I love have been getting upset over some of the messages because maybe people don’t know what happened and I’m not gonna lie, some of the messages have been getting to me, but that’s just the way of social media.
“First of all and foremost, I want to thank Modestas (Bukauskas). Game opponent. He took the fight on short notice and came out on top. I’m not taking anything away from him and I think that’s what some people may have thought I was doing by saying that I had health concerns, but that’s not the case at all. He came, he beat me, and that’s the fight game, but the night before my fight, I contracted [Gastroenteritis]. It was extreme diarrhea and vomiting for the whole night. When the UFC bus came, I was still on the toilet ground vomiting. If you want to confirm it, you can ask the USADA guy sitting there watching me sh*t non-stop while he’s trying to take my p*ss.”
Unanimous for Modestas Bukauskas!
@BalticGladiator takes the W over Tyson Pedro to close the #UFC284 prelims! pic.twitter.com/hXqGqgkQA1
— UFC (@ufc) February 12, 2023
Tyson Pedro Never Once Considered Backing Out of His Fight at UFC 284
Despite the illness, Tyson Pedro decided to move forward with the bout as scheduled. In the video clip, he revealed his reasons for doing so, stating that he simply didn’t want to let down anyone, particularly his family, fans, opponent, and employer that all played a role in making the fight happen.
“I still decided to fight for a couple of reasons. One, the UFC had sorted out this fight on late notice so I didn’t want to let them down. Two, Modestas had taken the fight on a week’s notice so I didn’t want to let him down. Three, because I didn’t want to let my daughter down. When you say you’re going to do something, get in there and do it. And four, I didn’t want to let the fans down because I know a lot of them wanted to come see me and watch me fight.“
Tyson Pedro also addressed the litany of negative comments he received from quote-unquote fans that were disappointed with his performance on Saturday night.
“There’s a lot of people that have commenting some terrible stuff and I just don’t think that they would have done the same and taken that risk of fighting in front of hundreds of thousands if they were in the same position. I also don’t care about your [parlays]. I lost my win bonus. I lost potential contract renegotiation and I took the risk of getting beaten up knowing I wasn’t 100%, but that was all my choice because I thought I could pull it off. I’m still gonna go back and fight with or without your support, but thank you very much to all those people that did send me kind messages. The ones who back me win or lose. You’re the reason why I fight.”