Rafael Fiziev handled fairly the journey within the 24 hours earlier than his newest UFC Vegas 58 win over Rafael dos Anjos.
Tasked with the primary UFC principal occasion of his profession, Fiziev finally delivered one of many most interesting performances of his octagon run, knocking out the previous UFC champion with a fifth-round salvo that prolonged Fiziev’s win streak to 6 straight and propelled him right into a No. 7 spot on MMA Fighting’s lightweight rankings. Nevertheless it was all almost derailed one evening earlier, when he made a hasty resolution in an try to sleep forward of the most important battle of his life.
“The evening earlier than the battle, he can’t fall asleep, so he took one melatonin capsule,” Fiziev’s supervisor and translator, Sayat Abdrakhmanov, revealed just lately on The MMA Hour.
“Then he took second [pill]. Third. Then he nonetheless couldn’t go to sleep, then he took one other, some CBD gummy with melatonin. He take it, after which he ask me, ‘Oh, did I take an excessive amount of melatonin? Is it going to have an effect on me in the course of the battle?’ I used to be like, ‘Why do you do one thing after which take into consideration what you’re doing [after]?!’
“So he went to the toilet — after which he made himself throw up all this, the capsules he took, all of the melatonin capsules he took.”
“I ate seven capsules of melatonin in whole,” added Fiziev. “I began to be scared, like perhaps I’d go sleep within the battle, so I wanted to go throw up [with my fingers].”
“I used to be like, ‘Why do you retain doing this? Every little thing was excellent and also you simply got here up with this [idea],’” Abdrakhmanov continued with fun.
Fortunately, Fiziev ended up OK. He stated he didn’t really feel any residual results towards dos Anjos and was pleased to keep away from a scenario related to the one that nearly torpedoed UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanvoski in his July 2020 rematch towards Max Holloway at UFC 251.
However alas, his reckless willingness to ingest sleeping capsules en masse wasn’t the one factor that gave Fiziev matches within the hours earlier than his first principal occasion at UFC Vegas 58.
His personal internal monologue chipped in as nicely — and apparently it wasn’t the primary time.
“I’ll let you know some tales, some small tales concerning the small p**** inside me,” Fiziev defined. “As a result of all the time earlier than battle, I’ve small, small p**** inside me — and earlier than fights, they begin speaking, ‘Oh, you’ve misplaced. Oh, this man knock you out. Oh, this man smashing you.’ All of those. And after I go into the cage, this p**** [shuts] off. And I ask them, ‘Hey, the place are you? You wish to inform me what’s up now?’”
“Principally what he’s saying is that a bit of coward lives inside him,” added Abdrakhmanov. “As soon as he makes his stroll to octagon, this little coward runs away till the following battle. After which when the following battle comes, this little coward comes again and begins to inform him, ‘Oh, you’re going to lose,’ and stuff like this, after which he’s like kicking him away once more.”
All in all, it was an eventful lead-up to a memorable evening for Fiziev.
The 29-year-old Kazakhstan native nonetheless acquired the job achieved and put himself in place for an enormous battle subsequent — one which, if he will get his want, could come against two-time title challenger Justin Gaethje. So if nothing else, Fiziev at the very least realized his lesson about melatonin.
“I’m by no means going to make use of this s*** once more,” Fiziev stated with fun.
