Andre Fili’s first knockout in over 4 years ought to have been the story of his battle week.
In all probability, he’ll bear 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 buddy. I used to be mentally ready for him to get previous, I perceive he’s eight years previous, I understood he wasn’t younger. I believed he had a number of extra years left. I used to be capable of 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 sooner or later. Canines, they love you a lot, and so they’re at all times within the second, they’re at all times completely satisfied, they’re at all times sharing the second, so that they don’t present a whole lot of ache. Clearly, they will’t communicate to you and articulate what they’re going by way of, so I feel he had a tumor that had been rising for in all probability 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 seek out Harley wasn’t shifting and was struggling to breathe. It was apparent that one thing was incorrect, and the timing couldn’t be worse with Fili and his staff set to fly out Tuesday.
The fighter hoped that it will merely be a matter of paying for a remedy that will convey Harley again to well being, however once they went to the vet, they acquired a grave prognosis.
“So I take him to the vet, I’m anticipating to provide 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 dangerous, 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 power.’ She mainly referred us to a surgeon—thoughts you, that is Monday, we go away for battle week Tuesday—it’s 3:30 in the midst of the day, I’m on the telephone with one vet who’s primarily saying, ‘We will do emergency surgical procedure tonight for $10,000. It’s going to be a really arduous surgical procedure on the canine, and we’re undecided if it would repair the issue.’ Ten thousand {dollars}, it’s going to be very arduous, and he won’t survive it. If he survives it, he’ll in all probability should undergo chemo. In case you put him by way of chemo, and the chemo has any actual antagonistic results, which it in all probability will, we’ll counsel you set him down.
“So it was like on one path was this lengthy string of invasive issues that will make my canine’s high quality of life dangerous, 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 midst of the day, so I’ve an hour and a half to select and say goodbye to my canine primarily. And I’m reducing weight and I’m packing my baggage to go away for battle week. So I simply sucked it up, I went and reduce 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 latest tragedy that Fili needed to cope with.
Fili talked about in his post-fight speech that he additionally noticed two mates move away throughout his preparation for UFC 296. It was a sequence of experiences that wounded him, but in addition offered priceless perspective.
“I additionally had a buddy get hit who was using his Harley Davidson, he received hit by an Amazon truck and died nearly immediately,” Fili mentioned. “He was like a bit of brother to me. That occurred at the beginning of the camp, six weeks out. Two weeks after, my buddy received hit on his motorbike. I had one other buddy who I’ve identified for 20 years move away, he overdosed.
“I’ve had all this stuff occur. I’ve handled all this stuff, and the one selection 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 might 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 lately. You actually have to understand every second. You may solely get to do that this one time, and having 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 way of 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 might be forgiven for not realizing the inside turmoil he was hiding up till that second.
As soon as he had a while for himself, although, it was a unique story.
“Once I win the battle, and I hug my teammates and I inform my coaches I like them, simply be current and be grateful and luxuriate in it, as a result of I perceive that loss is a part of life, however the losses I’ve taken lately have occurred so quick that the one manner that I can cope with 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 reduce, 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 fingers, laughed, hugged, mentioned all of the ‘I 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 capable of lastly get it out, however it took a complete week of not having the ability to course of it.”
