Mickey Gall: ‘My kidneys were failing’ before Diego Sanchez fight at UFC 235

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UFC welterweight prospect Mickey Gall wanted to challenge himself by facing TUF 1 alum Diego Sanchez. He ended up putting on a lackluster performance, en route to a second-round TKO loss at UFC 235 two weeks ago.

Gall attributed his poor showing that night to a bad weight cut that led to him gassing out inside the cage. But on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour, he revealed an entirely new layer of pre-fight occurrences that were way worse than his initial declarations.

“My kidneys were failing,” Gall told Luke Thomas (via MMA Fighting). “Before the fight, I didn’t really know. I could feel — I guess, looking back you could tell a couple of warning signs, like something was going on, but I didn’t go to the fight thinking, ‘F—k it, whatever, it’s just kidneys.’ I really didn’t know.

“But then when I got in the fight, I was zapped right away. I was zapped. I re-watched the fight, I’m like in slow motion. I remember struggling for balance, just trying to stay on my feet. It was crazy.”

Gall said he was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a rare but serious condition wherein damaged muscle fibers leak into the bloodstream, which can ultimately lead to kidney failure. But he did not think too much of it during the time it was happening, despite already passing out.

“I did have rhabdo, but they also think it was like a perfect storm of drops in the bucket that made this happen,” Gall explained. “My stomach was a little off for fight week, I had some diarrhea when I was supposed to be cutting weight. And then I did the weight cut — this weight cut was way easier than my last one.

“I believe sometimes you’ve got to just put the pain in and get through the weight cut. It wasn’t really necessary, I was singing, having a good time, got the weight off.

“At one point I did, when I stood up, I passed out,” he continued. “Which I didn’t think — at the time, I was like, ‘I don’t know, sometimes people pass out, I guess.’ It was easy to write it off, all the warning signs. Not my stomach or my back or my kidneys, like you don’t know what a kidney feeling weird really is like.”

Now 4-2 in the UFC since he made his debut in 2016, the 27-year-old fighter is looking to put this experience behind him and move forward.

“I’m fine. I’m lucky,” Gall said. “Everything’s fine, I love this life. I’m really, really pissed and disappointed the way the fight went. I couldn’t represent and show all my skills, but I’m grateful for this.

“I’m going to get an opportunity to do it again soon. I love this f—ng game. I love this sh-t.”

Sanchez later claimed that Gall employed some dirty tactics during their fight, alleging he was bitten and eye gouged. He also posted a photo on Instagram, showing what looked like a bite mark on his chest.