(Eder Jones wins fight, loses pie-eating contest.)
This Friday marks the official start of Autumn, and like clockwork, I’m catching a goddamned cold. There’s something about the change of seasons that seems to wreck my immune system, which has grown frail due to a life of solitary blogging and poor hygeine. So as I chug my Airborne/orange juice cocktail, let’s all take inspiration in these six men, who were way worse-off than I am now, and still managed to kick ass.
GEORGES ST. PIERRE
vs. Thomas Denny @ UCC 12, 1/25/03
Method of victory: TKO (cut), 4:45 of round 2
In his own words: ”I took the fight and I was really sick. I was so sick, after the first round I thought I was going to fall unconscious. And I told my cornerman, I’m like, listen, when the second round will start I will try a high kick in the beginning and if I don’t knock out my opponent, I want you to throw the towel. My cornerman look up at me like this, he said ‘Georges, I don’t have a towel, you’re gonna die in the ring.’
And I got so angry, I was like, I can’t believe this guy, he’s supposed to be my friend, he wants me to die in the ring. So I stood up, I hear the [bell], I fought through it, and by some kind of miracle I was able to cut the guy and to TKO him and the referee stopped the fight. I was completely exhausted. That was my toughest fight.”
RICH FRANKLIN
vs. Aaron Brink @ IFC: Warriors Challenge 11, 1/13/01
Method of victory: TKO (foot injury), 2:42 of round 1; later changed to a no contest
In his own words: “That’s the first time that somebody had flown me out to an event. At the time, the IFC was a California-based organization, and Aaron Brink was a California guy, so I was pretty much brought in to lose. But the interesting thing about that fight is I had gotten very sick beforehand. I was sitting in my hotel room about an hour-and-a-half before the event started, and I had over a 104-degree fever. I skipped the rules meeting, skipped all this stuff and basically just showed up to fight. And you can tell by looking at me on the tape that I was definitely not feeling good.
That was a long night of my life. And that’s actually when Monte Cox started managing me, after that fight. He and I had been at several shows together — I knew who he was, he knew who I was — and he liked me, and he said, ‘I pretty much saw you make about the stupidest decision you’ve ever made in your life tonight. If you’re interested, I’d be willing to manage you and make sure that things like that don’t continue to happen.’”
JOSE ALDO
vs. Mark Hominick @ UFC 129, 4/30/11
Method of victory: Unanimous decision
F*ck antibiotics: Following the fight, Aldo complained to his corner that he should have taken antibiotics, to which his cornerman replied, “Antibiotics would not have helped at all, you’re the champion kid, fuck antibiotics, everything is okay. You fought well, smooth and composed.”
In his coach’s words: ”(Aldo) suffered a cut in one of his toes a week before the fight and got it infected with a bacteria. He was taking a dose of antibiotics and anti-inflammatory for three days, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before the fight so he’d not need to take anything else close to Saturday. I can’t say with 100% certainty that it affected his performance because I’m not a doctor. I give Hominick a lot more credit for enduring the fight than the fact that Aldo took these medications.”
CARLOS CONDIT
vs. Dong Hyun Kim @ UFC 132, 7/2/11
Method of victory: KO, 2:58 of round 1
In his own words: [two weeks before Kim fight] ”My stomach was all fucked up, bro. The first couple days I was throwing up, my stomach hurt bad. I couldn’t sleep at night…This is my first day back training since probably last Friday, so it’s been seven days. I went to a friend’s wedding in Vegas last weekend, and I’m not exactly sure whether I ate something or whether I picked something up or what, but I got really sick. I was throwing up for a few days and was just, I was pretty messed up. I wasn’t able to eat or train for quite a while.”
Greg Jackson adds: “It was so bad we were contemplating canceling the fight, just because he was really, really sick, he lost some weight, he’s not being able to train, and we’re really close to the fight, so it’s very dangerous. So we’ll see how it goes, and if he starts improving we’ll keep him in.”
KYLE KINGSBURY
vs. Ricardo Romero @ UFC 126, 2/5/11
Method of victory: TKO, 0:21 of round 1
In his own words: “I actually had a really bad fever the night before the fight. I did a steam room that I’m not used to doing to cut weight because I came in at about 224.5 (pounds) at the beginning of the week on Tuesday, and I like to be about 220.
So they have the nice salon down there at Mandalay Bay, and I hit that up. I was hitting the steam room, and I got a little moisture in my lungs. I was thinking nothing of it, but a couple days went by, and it got worse…Later that night I sweat the bed so bad. I had a fever. I’m still recovering from it…I haven’t really been able to celebrate my win. I haven’t felt that victory yet just because I’ve been so under the weather.”
TIM SYLVIA
vs. Assuerio Silva @ Ultimate Fight Night 3, 1/16/06
Method of victory: Unanimous decision
In his own words: “Not taking anything away from Assuerio, he’s a tough dude, obviously. I hit him a couple of times and couldn’t finish him. I was really sick for the fight. I got really sick Saturday and had problems holding my innards. When I was warming up, I had a few problems, and I actually had a few problems in the ring when I was fighting.
I don’t know what it was. It got really cold when we were outside working out and stuff, going back and forth from the room. I caught something, and I just couldn’t hold in my number twos…If you look at the fight you’ll see that when my shorts came down, you’ll see the wet mark in my underwear.”
(BG)