Uriah Hall opens up on the harrowing weight cut that left him in the hospital

Back in January, Ultimate Fighter 17 semifinalist Uriah Hall was supposed to battle the recently-retired Vitor Belfort. Regrettably, this fighter never happened, as Hall was hospitalized as the result of a brutal weight cut.

In the wake of Hall’s botched weight cut, UFC flyweight Paige VanZant called it one of the scariest things she’d ever seen. In a recent interview with ESPN, Hall recounted this grisly cut, and his rendition of the story certainly seems to confirm VanZant’s comments. It sounds absolutely harrowing.

“I was walking to the elevator and boom, just like that, I collapsed,” Hall said (transcribed by Ben Fowlkes for MMAjunkie). “I was in the elevator holding on to my best friend – apparently I bit him, to hold on to him. I passed out again … woke up and there were EMTs, a guy was trying to get a needle in me, and I remember swinging. I wasn’t in control of my body.’

“I woke up in the hospital and was screaming for water. ‘Give me water! Give me water!’ They said, ‘We can’t give you water yet,’ for whatever reason. I grabbed my sister and said, ‘Tell them to please give me a sip of water.’ I never felt so thirsty in my life. They finally gave me a sip, and I passed out.”

Despite the brutal cut he endured attempting to make weight for his battle with Belfort, Hall has decided to stay in the 185-pound middleweight division. He will return to the Octagon at UFC 226 this July 7 in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he will battle undefeated middleweight contender Paulo Costa. This bout will be Hall’s first since a September 2017 knockout of Krzysztof Jotko. He currently owns an overall record of 13-8.

After this terrifying January weight cut, do you think Uriah Hall should have moved to the light heavyweight division?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 5/18/2018.