The crowd in Cleveland was awesome, and the UFC will undoubtedly be back. However, they will not be back to the Wyndham Cleveland host hotel.
The faulty elevator dropped trapping fighters in it, and injuring CB Dollaway to the point he had to pull out of the event. The elevator also delayed Alistair Overeem’s arrival at the weigh in, and he was fined $500.
During a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, Mickey Gall, who defeated CM Punk, reported he too had a crappy experience, in this case with the hotel refrigerator.
“Now that you ask, I didn’t talk about this at all,” said Gall, as transcribed by Adam Guillen Jr. for MMA Mania. “I was having — excuse me — but I was having diarrhea for my last three days there.”
“My last two days of my weight cut and the day of the fight. That got me nervous If I got this sick and this huge opportunity I’m going to have to really, I wasn’t going to pull out but I was worried I’d have to go through and wanting to crap my pants half the time. But come fight time, I felt good and there was nothing going to stop me.”
“I always prepare my own food, my mom does. She helps me out big time and she slaved in the kitchen cooking a lot of food that I bring out with no salt, good weight-cutting food. But the fridge I had in my room wasn’t good, and I think my food went bad. The fridge wasn’t too cold, so I ate these bad veggie burgers that gave me the s***s.”
The rest of the event he described as tremendous, including Punk rushing forward too fast.
“I kind of expected it,” said Gall. “I felt he felt I had something to prove. I’m a fighter, a tough fighter and once I get in there, I let my training take over. He crossed the line in my head as to how far he should be that I keep at a certain range. And when you come in that hot, I’m going to take you down. I just changed levels, took him down for coming in so aggressive and quick.”
“I 100-percent felt a strong obligation to make an example out of him. I felt indebted to my sport, to the veterans of my sport, everyone in my sport to go in there and dominate every second of that fight. 100-percent.”
If Gall has any regrets, it is that Punk made weight. Had the pro wrestler failed, Gall would have received 20% of the $500,000 purse. He otherwise was grateful to Punk for the opportunity, and did not begrudge him the half million.
