Samman takes grief, guilt into the Octagon at UFC 181
At 8:36 p.m. on August 30, 2013, Josh Samman was texting with his girlfriend At 8:41 p.m. police arrived at the scene of a fatal, one-car accident.
UFC middleweight Josh Samman did well on TUF 17, and won his UFC debut via KO in April of 2013. He moved in with his girlfriend, Hailey Bevis. Life was good.
On August 30 last year, the fighter was texting with her as she prepared to merge from I-75 onto I-10 in Talahassee, FL. Bevis sent a text at 8:36 p.m. At 8:41 p.m. police arrived at the scene of the fatal accident. Hailey Bevis was dead, in a single car accident, at the age of 22.
“I’ve always held myself responsible for that,” Samman told Ben Fowlkes for MMAJunkie.
People say you don’t know what you have until it’s gone, but I knew. I knew what I had when I had it. I’d never been more happy in my whole life.
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, whether I wanted to even be here anymore.”
Samman’s team and employer did not give up on him. The UFC flew him to events, and finally he determined to fight again and a Florida event, one year from his last fight. Then weeks before the fight he suffered a hamstring tear. Then his step father passed away, leaving him to help his mother grieve.
UFC 181 on Saturday night falls on Dec. 6, Hailey’s birthday. Samman took it as a sign.
Hailey always used to say, ‘Everything happens for a reason,’ said Samman.
Joe Silva made a fight, with TUF 17 winner Eddie Gordon, on the Fox Sports 1 broadcast prelims.
There’s no way I can describe how important that day is going to be for me, said Samman. I can’t express it in words, so I have to go out there and do it through my actions. My coaches and everyone around me can urge me all they want to leave my emotions outside the cage, but there’s no stopping it. No way.
I think he will know when he gets in the cage and he sees me. He’ll understand that the night is mine and not his.