Matt Hamill shows heart to win with staph infection, blurred vision and a broken hand
UFC light heavyweight, Matt Hamill has revealed not only did he suffer a staph infection prior to his bout with Keith Jardine at the “Ultimate Fighter” season eleven finale in Las Vegas, but he had to cope with blurred vision and a broken hand during the “Fight of the Night” bonus winning contest.
Speaking at the post fight press conference, Hamill said:
“The gameplan was to use movement then attack with the takedown,” Hamill said. “But what happened in the first round was I broke my left hand, and I couldn’t get the takedown. I had the death hook. But I tried. I kept going. I had to go to plan B – to out-strike him. I fought all my heart out. Then he poked me in the eye, and I thought I could be blind and deaf. It was too many handicaps, but I’m not giving up. I go all out.”
Hamill then revealed that he had fought most of the fight with blurred vision after taking a poke in the eye from “The Dean of Mean”.
“It was blurry, I don’t know. I thought I was going to knock him out in the second round. I had him, then he poked me in the eye, and I had to stop. It happened so fast. It’s all about heart. The only way to beat me is my mind and my soul. I’ve been through it for so many years. I’m not a give-up person. I just want to go all out. I knew the first round that I wasn’t doing really good. Then after he poked me in the eye, it was too much. I said, ‘Forget it. I want to go all out.’”
“When the fight was over, I didn’t know about the decision. I just went all out the best I could. Whether my hand was raised or not, I knew I had fought my heart out. I’ll probably have to go the hospital tomorrow, but right now, the good thing is that I came here to catch up with all the interviews.”
Hamill has now won his last four fights inside the octagon, although one of those was the controversial disqualification win over Jon Jones last December. Will this latest win be enough to push him into the realms of title contention? Stay tuned to MMABay to find out.
By Michael Pepper. (Follow me on Twitter)
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