After a couple of disappointing setbacks, not to mention a freak injury that forced him out of a fight, Christos Giagos (19-10 MMA, 5-6 UFC) returns to action on Saturday against fellow lightweight Ricky Glenn (22-6-2 MMA, 4-3-1 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 222 in Las Vegas. Giagos previews that matchup, discusses his recovery from a few severed tendons, outlines the importance of this upcoming fight, and more.
Check out the full interview in the video above, or read the transcript below.
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John Morgan: It is ‘The Spartan,’ Christos Giagos, who is on the eve of a UFC return. I guess just give me the feel, man, a few days out from being back in the octagon again.
Christos Giagos: Feels good, you know what I mean? It’s been too long. I don’t like sitting out this long, you know, but just had to take care of a little injury from pulling out of my last one, but it feels good, you know what I mean? Getting all those butterflies and nerves, but, like, everything feels a lot better this camp, for sure. I feel like I’m well established where I’m at now. I’m very comfortable, and everything’s gone right, so yeah.
JM: I love it. I want to talk about that injury in a moment, but I do want to ask you, the last time I saw you was actually at FURY Professional Grappling, on the mats there. You got a win there – very tough guy, Zulkarnaiyn Kamchybekov. I love seeing you guys compete, man, because, you know, before a mixed martial arts fight, you guys are a little bit on edge. It’s a little tough, you know? But the grappling, it seems everybody’s competitive, but they’re kind of more relaxed, as well. It’s kind of fun. So what was that experience like for you?
Christos Giagos: You know what? I’m so happy I did that. It was awesome. I want to do more, actually. You get that feel of, you know, that competitive feeling, and I didn’t get nervous at all until the day I showed up for the jiu-jitsu match. I saw the crowd, and I was like, ‘Oh, whew.’ The butterflies came. I was like, ‘This is real. This is – man, I’ve got to perform in front of people. Uh, oh.’ And I know people are watching on Fight Pass. I got a lot of buddies watching, so I got the same type of nerves. You know, maybe not as extreme as a fight, but it was still there, you know what I mean? And I think getting used to that feeling is very good for us fighters, so I thought it was very fun. I had a little bit of an adrenaline dump during the match. Everything was the same like a fight, but I didn’t have to worry about getting punched in the face.
JM: I love it, man. Those have become some of my favorite days of the year, when we get to call those. So at the time, I knew you were recovering from a hand injury, but here’s what’s crazy – professional fighter, going out there, training in the most difficult sport in the world. What I didn’t realize until recently is that the injury occurred while you were cleaning a grill. Is that really? What the hell?
Christos Giagos: I wish I had a cooler story. You know, a lot of people are telling me, like, ‘You should just lie and say something cooler happened,’ but I had just remodeled my bathroom, and I was having like this drip in my toilet, so I kept tightening the nut, and the toilet exploded. So I switched out the toilet, bought a new one, and I had the broken toilet in this, like, big trash bin, you know? And then we’re pretty much done with everything. We have family coming. We cleaned the whole house, and I’m cleaning this, like, tray for my grill, and I’m just wiping it down. That’s all I’m doing. I’m not even scrubbing. I’m just wiping all the crumbs off, but when I wiped it, I was wiping it into the bin of the trashcan where the toilet was, and this little nick of this edge of the toilet was like a little closer than I thought. My hand swiped right over it and just sliced me. I never knew porcelain was that sharp, but it hit my hand. I was like, ‘Ooh,’ where I covered it, and then I knew it was cut, so I didn’t want to let go, and I was afraid to let go because I didn’t know how bad it was. I was hoping it wasn’t too bad, and then when I went to the shower, because I knew it was going to be bleeding, I let go of it, and then the blood started rushing, and it started squirting out, and I’d never seen that happen on my body ever in my life. I thought I hit like an artery or something. I’m freaking out, like, ‘Uh, oh. Am I’m going to, like, die losing too much blood?’ I don’t know what’s going on, so I called my wife because she’s in the medical field a little bit, and she knows a lot more than me, so I call her. I’m like, ‘Babe, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. This happened,’ and she was like, ‘OK, well you have to clean it,’ so I try to let go of it again to, like, put the water, but it starts squirting out again. I’m like, ‘Oh, I can’t. I’ve got to go to the hospital or something.’ So I go to the urgent care. I wrap it up with like a towel. I took a Uber because we only had one car at the time, so I had to take an Uber with like a wrapped hand into the urgent care. They were going to stitch me up, but they looked at it, saw it squirting. They’re like, ‘Nope, you’ve got to go to a hospital, so I went to the hospital. At first they didn’t think I cut any tendons, and then they looked at it again. She’s like opening my flap up and looking inside. They had to give me a shot inside of my cut. That was the worst of it, but yeah, they told me I cut two tendons to my pinky. The next day, I went to a plastic surgeon place and they stitched me up and stitched my tendons up together, and it’s good to go now, but yeah, I got a gnarly little scar. I don’t know if you can see it, but yeah.
JM : That’s crazy. OK, so I got to ask you about the recovery in a second, but the first question that pops into my mind is what did this Uber driver say? Like, the Uber driver shows up and you got like a bloody towel wrapped around your hand. Are they like, ‘Nah, bro, this ain’t happening.’
Christos Giagos: No, he was – I don’t think he noticed it because when I wrapped it up, it was pretty thick, so you can’t see any blood through it. It was just on the inside of it, so I don’t think – I just had it like, you know, to the side. I didn’t really like show it off. He didn’t really notice.
JM: So talking about the recovery. So I mean, damage to the tendons – did you have to have surgery on it?
Christos Giagos: Yeah, so the next day I went to this plastic surgeon spot and a hand specialist, and they had to give me another shot inside of my cut because the hospital stitched it up just like a pre-stitch just to keep it closed a little bit. He had to, like, cut it back open. He gave me the shot, and then they had it. It was weird. So I’m awake during the surgery, so they’re, like, pulling, and I could feel them touching my tendon. I feel my pinky doing this, you know? And then he stitched up the tendons, and then he stitched up the the flap over my tendons. I was in this little brace type thing for, like, about a week or two, and then, yeah, it was just recovery from there.
JM: I mean that had to be a little bit frustrating considering what your profession is and what you guys go through every day, and that’s how you get stuck out for six months is slicing your hand on some porcelain?
Christos Giagos: Yeah, it was not my proudest moment. I didn’t want to take too much off training. I wanted to get back as soon as I can, so what I started doing, as soon as I was like, pretty OK, like it was still sore and stuff, I had to grab like a tennis ball, and I wrapped my hand with a hand wrap, and then I taped it over, and I was going to sparring one-handed. Kicks, knees, and I was using my hand to block, you know, but I wasn’t using it much, and I had to grapple a little bit, but what’s crazy, holding the ball, my finger wasn’t in danger. I found that trick out. One of my buddies told me about it when he dislocated his finger. He showed me that trick, and I tried it, and it worked out. My hand is 100 percent now.
JM: That is awesome, man. That is dedication. All right, well, you get back to action on Saturday, April 22. Ricky Glenn, it is, as you’ve noted, ‘The Spartan’ and ‘The Gladiator.’ I mean, that’s old school, so talk to you about the matchup. I mean on paper, it looks like it should be a fun one. What do you think about it?
Christos Giagos: Exactly. I think the same thing. I think on paper, everything looks like it’s a fun fight, you know what I mean? I feel like this is kind of fight I’ve been wanting. I get to go out there and just – you know, I don’t really have much of a gameplan this fight. I just want to go out there and fight my fight. You know, wherever I see I can take the fight, I’ll take the fight. Obviously, I’ll be defensive when, you know, who knows what he’s going to want to do either, but I think he’s a warrior in the sport. I feel like I’m a warrior in the sport. You know, we both fought a lot of times. We’re both veterans in the sport for a long time, so I feel like this has everything to be the ‘Fight of the Night,’ to be honest. We’re going to both come at each other, and he doesn’t stop coming forward, you know what I mean? A lot of his fights, he wins by coming back in the third round, you know? So I know he’s going to be in my face the whole fight. I’m going to be in his face the whole fight. I’m going to go out there and try to knock him out in the first round, but I’m not holding that to the the highest expectations. You know, he’s very durable. He’s never been knocked out, so I just, I love this fight. I love everything about it. I love that his name’s ‘Gladiator,’ so it just has everything written out to be the ‘Fight of the Night.’
JM: I love it. I think it absolutely can be, and I guess talk to me about your mindset going in because I know you’re probably frustrated over the last two results but also fighting some incredibly talented dudes, as well. It’s not exactly like you’re in there with some pushovers and not getting the results you want. So, I mean, I guess what were there lessons you took out of the last two and kind of what’s your mindset coming in?
Christos Giagos: Yeah, there’s definitely lessons. From the first fight, obviously, I don’t think I was mentally prepared. I took that fight on my way to moving to Florida, changing camps completely, and I didn’t think it was going to be as bad as it was mentally, but, you know, I just stuck with it. I already said yes to the fight, so I wasn’t going to back out, so I just went in there like, ‘I’m going to do the best that I can,’ and, you know, for the time that I was in there, I was doing fairly well until I got clipped. Then the Thiago Moises fight, that one ate at me for a while because I thought I was definitely prepared mentally and physically, and I just made one stupid mistake. But like you said, you’re in there with the best in the world. One mistake can cost you the fight. I’m just sad and mad and not happy about the fact that I know I’m a lot better than this, and I want to show the world what I’m capable of, and I haven’t got to do that yet, and I feel like this is going to be the fight everyone’s going to get to see, like, what I’m capable of.
JM: I love it. Well, listen, I mean, it’s crazy. I look back at your whole career, you know, I think about the first UFC run, you know, Gilbert Burns, Chris Wade, you end up fighting Josh Emmett, and that’s all before we know really who Gilbert Burns, Chris Wade and Josh Emmett is, you know what I mean? So I feel like you’ve always fought the absolute best of the best, I mean, so clearly, I mean, you don’t mind taking on challenges, but do you – I don’t know. Do you take any solace in that when you look back and say, ‘Yeah, I had some setbacks, but, you know, Charles Oliveira – I mean, look at look at these monsters that I’ve fought my whole career’?
Christos Giagos: It definitely gives me a sense of confidence because I look back at those fights and, you know, with Chris Wade, I think, you know, that was arguably – I could’ve won that fight, you know what I mean? I had a couple of judges tell me that they thought I won the fight. I think this is before the whole wrestling – because, like, before wrestling was scoring mad points, and then they kind of took that away saying, ‘You’ve got to do something with the wrestling,’ so I had a bunch of people thinking I won that fight, but anyway, I fought Josh Emmett. That was a crazy war. We got ‘Fight of the Year.’ I fought Charles Oliveira, beat him in the first round, you know what I mean? I’m just coming up short in a couple of these fights, and it just proves that I can hang with the best. I’ve got to just, you know, stay in there mentally and stay in it the whole fight and just, you know, the less mistakes, the better, obviously. So I know that I’m good enough. I’m talented enough to compete with these guys. It’s just whether I can pull it together under the lights, you know what I’m saying?
JM: I love it, man. Well, this is an opportunity to make a statement. Like I said, on paper, it looks like it’s going to be a fun fight. I guess, last thing – you kind of said it, you know,? ‘I think this could be Fight of the Night.’ Do you let yourself go in with that mentality, like, ‘Bro, this is going to be a back-and-forth battle,’ or do you feel like, ‘No, I’ve got to go in there, and I’ve got to dominate. I’ve got to make a statement,’ Like, what’s what’s the goal here?
Christos Giagos: Well, the goal is to go in there and make a statement, you know what I mean? I feel like I hit harder. I’m a little stronger. He used to fight at ’45. I’m not going to go in there thinking he’s weak or anything. He’s a very durable fighter. His last, I think two fights were at ’55 – or one or two. I’m not too sure. I didn’t look too much into it, but he used to fight at ’45 and then he went up a weight class, and – wait, I’m pretty sure he used to fight at ’45, right?
JM: Yeah. Yup.
Christos Giagos: OK, cool. I’m like, ‘Wait, did he?’
JM: Yeah, wait. Did he? Eh, just tell yourself he did, anyway.
Christos Giagos: Yeah. I feel like I might be – I’m going to be the stronger fighter. I know he has a good gas tank on him. He’s very durable, but I think I can go out there and make a statement, but I’m not expecting that to be the result. I’m expecting a war. I’m, you know, prepared for a war, but I want to go out there and make a statement and just go and smash this guy. I mean, that’s how I’m coming out there to fight, but I’m just – you know what I mean – I don’t wanna get my hopes up and, you know, say I don’t do that and then all of a sudden, ‘Oh, he’s still in my face. Uhh.’ No, that’s not going to happen. I’m there for the war. I’m there to fight all the way through, but I’m going to go out there and definitely try to make a statement and show everybody like Christos ‘The Spartan’ is here to stay, and I’m not going anywhere.
JM: I love it, brother. Well, ‘The Spartan’ and ‘The Gladiator,’ man, it should be fantastic. Saturday, April 22. Best of luck in wrapping everything up. Safe travels, and we’ll see you at the UFC Apex.
Christos Giagos: Appreciate that. Good seeing you again, man.
