INGLEWOOD, Calif. – After Uriah Hall knocked out Bevon Lewis in the third round of their UFC 232 bout, it was clear that emotions were running high.
Some of it, Hall (14-9 MMA, 7-7 UFC) said after the UFC Fight Pass-streamed middleweight bout, had to do with the adversity he had to overcome inside the octagon on Saturday. Hall was, after all, being considerably outworked by Bevon Lewis (6-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) before scoring his epic, one-punch comeback in the final frame.
“I said, you know what, in the sport of mixed martial arts, something’s going to go wrong that you don’t expect,” Hall told reporters, including MMAjunkie, backstage at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. “So I have to readjust. If someone’s outboxing me, maybe I should take them down or kick him in the leg.”
Hall’s comeback inside the cage meant one in the larger picture, too, as the fighter is now officially recovered from a knockout loss to Paulo Costa in July. After a rough stretch that saw Hall dropping three straight losses, he’s gone 2-1 in his past three outings.
But Hall’s emotion had to do with more than his own career. As “Prime Time” said in his touching post-fight speech, he was also fighting for his sister, who’s currently dealing with depression.
Backstage after the massive win, Hall talked a little further about his sister, his decision to walk out to a song that she wrote and the ways in which they have inspired each other.
“I was fighting for more than myself,” Hall said. “I was fighting for my sister, I was fighting for my mom. I didn’t talk about it, because I didn’t want any sympathy. You know, I knew what I had to do and I used that motivation. My sister wrote a song called ‘Standing,’ that’s why I walked out to it. And she said she was inspired to write that song when I broke my toe. But the funny thing is I was inspired by that song to fight. So it worked so perfectly for us.
“She accomplished so much in her life, she’s married with kids, and we’ve seen people that go through depression, like someone like Robin Williams, where you’d never thought in a million years someone like that, who was so happy, and when something like that happens I’m like, ‘Oh, that sucks,’ but when it’s happening to someone I care about, it was like, ‘Wow, it’s really real.’ And people are really going through this.
“So, when I saw my sister was going through that, I felt like I had to be some kind of positive reinforcement to let her know that, Hey, I failed so much in probably the biggest stage in the world and everyone gets to see me do it. Not everyone gets to see people fail, but everyone gets to see me do it. So, if everyone is seeing me do it and I keep standing, it’s a reminder to say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to keep standing, too.'”
To hear from Hall, check out the video above.
And for complete coverage of UFC 232, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
from MMAjunkie http://bit.ly/2F2cmo8
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