Andre Fili’s first knockout in over 4 years ought to have been the story of his battle week.
In all chance, he’ll keep in mind UFC 296 for what occurred within the days main as much as it.
On Saturday, Fili picked up a spectacular first-round TKO of Lucas Almeida to return to the win column and hold his UFC file above the .500 mark. The 14-year veteran entered the competition with a heavy coronary heart as he needed to put down his beloved canine Harley a day earlier than flying to Las Vegas to compete.
Fili recounted the story throughout an look on The MMA Hour.
“It was actually powerful,” Fili mentioned. “I didn’t develop up with pets, I didn’t actually develop up with animals. It wasn’t actually a factor we did, we simply didn’t have pets. So I received this canine eight years in the past, and he grew to become my greatest pal. I used to be mentally ready for him to get outdated, I perceive he’s eight years outdated, I understood he wasn’t younger. I believed he had just a few extra years left. I used to be in a position to wrap my head across the thought of him getting older and him passing away; I knew that was an inevitability.
“What I wasn’t ready for was him simply being gone at some point. Canines, they love you a lot, and so they’re all the time within the second, they’re all the time completely satisfied, they’re all the time sharing the second, in order that they don’t present loads of ache. Clearly, they’ll’t communicate to you and articulate what they’re going by means of, so I believe he had a tumor that had been rising for most likely a very long time, however it wasn’t one thing that I used to be conscious of.”
Fili remembers going to mattress final Sunday and waking up Monday to search out Harley wasn’t transferring and was struggling to breathe. It was apparent that one thing was unsuitable, and the timing couldn’t be worse with Fili and his group set to fly out Tuesday.
The fighter hoped that it could merely be a matter of paying for a remedy that might deliver Harley again to well being, however after they went to the vet, they acquired a grave prognosis.
“So I take him to the vet, I’m anticipating to present him some antibiotics or some costly bulls***, and he’ll really feel higher,” Fili mentioned. “Actually, when the physician got here again into the room, I may see in her face that it was not that. I requested her, I simply instantly mentioned, ‘It’s unhealthy, huh?’ She shook her head and mentioned, ‘Yeah, he has a tumor that’s grown very aggressively in his spleen, and it’s inflicting inside bleeding, and he has blood loss and that’s why he has low vitality.’ She mainly referred us to a surgeon—thoughts you, that is Monday, we depart for battle week Tuesday—it’s 3:30 in the course of the day, I’m on the telephone with one vet who’s basically saying, ‘We are able to do emergency surgical procedure tonight for $10,000. It’s going to be a really laborious surgical procedure on the canine, and we’re unsure if it can repair the issue.’ Ten thousand {dollars}, it’s going to be very laborious, and he won’t survive it. If he survives it, he’ll most likely must undergo chemo. For those who put him by means of chemo, and the chemo has any actual adversarial results, which it most likely will, we’ll recommend you place him down.
“So it was like on one path was this lengthy string of invasive issues that might make my canine’s high quality of life unhealthy, after which actually on the opposite line, I’ve a vet saying we are able to put your canine down, however our final appointment is at 5. And that is 3:30 in the course of the day, so I’ve an hour and a half to select and say goodbye to my canine basically. And I’m slicing weight and I’m packing my baggage to go away for battle week. So I simply sucked it up, I went and lower some weight within the storage, rinsed off, and I had about 45 minutes to say goodbye to my canine after which we drove him to the vet, we put him down and mentioned goodbye to him and got here residence, packed our baggage, and went to sleep. Awakened for battle week.”
Astonishingly, Harley’s dying wasn’t the one current tragedy that Fili needed to take care of.
Fili talked about in his post-fight speech that he additionally noticed two mates go away throughout his preparation for UFC 296. It was a collection of experiences that wounded him, but additionally supplied helpful perspective.
“I additionally had a pal get hit who was using his Harley Davidson, he received hit by an Amazon truck and died virtually immediately,” Fili mentioned. “He was like slightly brother to me. That occurred at the beginning of the camp, six weeks out. Two weeks after, my pal received hit on his bike. I had one other pal who I’ve recognized for 20 years go away, he overdosed.
“I’ve had all these items occur. I’ve handled all these items, and the one alternative was both to dwell on it and simply wallow in it, or simply hopefully take the lesson of none of this s*** is assured. I don’t imply to be morbid, however this may very well be the final time you and I ever communicate. None of that is assured, and it’s a cliché, individuals say it on a regular basis, however it by no means registered till just lately. You actually have to understand every second. You would possibly solely get to do that this one time, and with the ability to do it this one time is a present. So I went into battle week prefer it was my debut. I went into battle week like I used to be doing every thing for the primary time.”
By all of it, Fili persevered, taking Almeida out within a spherical to attain his first end since a first-round knockout of Sheymon Moraes in July 2019. Watching Fili’s efficiency and celebration, one may very well be forgiven for not realizing the internal turmoil he was hiding up till that second.
As soon as he had a while for himself, although, it was a special story.
“Once I win the battle, and I hug my teammates and I inform my coaches I really like them, simply be current and be grateful and revel in it, as a result of I perceive that loss is a part of life, however the losses I’ve taken just lately have occurred so quick that the one manner that I can take care of is to only take the lesson of being grateful for proper now,” Fili mentioned. “That’s what I leaned into this battle week. Each second of the battle and each second of the method, even the burden lower, each single piece of this battle camp, and this battle week, and this fight-night I practiced gratitude for.
“After which I left the sector, shook arms, laughed, hugged, mentioned all of the ‘I really like yous,’ received escorted from the entrance of [the] New York New York [casino] into an elevator to return to my room. I used to be in an elevator on my own, I used to be lastly alone for the primary time the complete week, after which I broke down and cried within the elevator on my own. I used to be in a position to lastly get it out, however it took an entire week of not with the ability to course of it.”
