Despite having the flu, Bryce Mitchell says he had no choice but to compete at UFC 282.
Mitchell (15-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) was scheduled to face Movsar Evloev in the UFC Fight Night 214 headliner on Nov. 5, but an injury forced Evloev. Mitchell was offered Ilia Topuria a month later and accepted the bout.
Mitchell wound up suffering his first-career setback when he was submitted by Topuria last month at UFC 282. It was a rough night for Mitchell, who later revealed he was battling the flu. So if Mitchell wasn’t fit to compete, then why didn’t he withdraw? He said he couldn’t financially afford to.
“I had a couple thousand bucks in my bank account, and (the UFC) told me that, ‘If you don’t take this fight, we’re not finding you one until February,'” Mitchell told ESPN. “They said they’re booked. So, it’s like you can live off a couple thousand bucks in your bank, or you can f*cking fight December 10th. And if not, f*ck off until February.
“I said, ‘You know what? I don’t want to live on a couple thousand bucks until February.’ I would have made it, because I could have scrapped by, and maybe I should have. But at the time, I thought I’d win the fight, brother. I was going in there with the flu to kick somebody’s ass anyways. That just wasn’t the case. I was not capable of kicking ass that night. I was capable of taking an ass kicking. I did do that pretty well.”
Immediately after the loss, Mitchell was seen contemplating retirement to his coaches in the locker room. But Mitchell admits it was only in the heat of the moment.
Mitchell didn’t expect having the flu to impact his cardio and overall performance as much as it did, but he went in there to win and hoped for a bonus, too.
“To say it wasn’t a factor, that would be a lie,” Mitchell said. “I’m not complaining about my financial situation. I’m very happy, I try to invest my money, especially in the real estate, farmland, whatever.”
He continued, “If I could go back, I probably wouldn’t even have shot a takedown, but in the moment, I was not accepting what I was capable of. … If I would have readjusted my strategy, I know I could have done better. I could have probably went all three rounds. But I really gassed myself out shooting a lot of takedowns and stuff like that.”
