Athletes
Mickey Gall Is Back And Better Than Ever
Welterweight Mickey Gall Aims To Capitalize On The Perfect Opportunity In Front Of A Home Crowd
“Fighting the toughest guys in the world with a broken back is not ideal.”
Yes, Mickey Gall, that’s certainly not ideal, but it’s what the welterweight prospect did for the better part of four years before finally getting surgery just before Christmas last year.
This year, Christmas comes early for the Green Brook, New Jersey native, as he returns this Saturday for a UFC 302 bout against Bassil Hafez at the Prudential Center. It’s a homecoming that seemed unlikely when he was at his aunt’s house for six weeks following the surgery.
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“I was just on the couch or taking walks around the block, just trying to keep myself from going crazy,” said Gall.
It was before a proposed fight with Carlos Condit when Gall’s back started acting up, and it just got progressively worse. The Condit fight didn’t happen, presumably giving Gall some time for the injury to get better, but when he got the call to face Mike Perry in June of 2020, he took the fight, back be damned.
Mickey Gall Fight Week Interview | UFC 302
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Mickey Gall Fight Week Interview | UFC 302
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“I was feeling that all camp, and it got to a point where I could not sit down,” said Gall. “Sitting in the car, driving to practice, I'd be getting blood red, mad at anybody in traffic that was making me sit in the car any longer because I was in excruciating pain.”
Gall kept a brave face, kept showing up to practice, and kept fighting. But what started as a 5-2 UFC career turned into losses in three of four bouts, and after an April 2022 loss to Mike Malott, Gall had some hard decisions to make because this whole thing just wasn’t working out.
Full UFC 302 Fight Card Preview
“Luckily, I had good people around me that were helping me try and mitigate the pain, but I guess it was just mental toughness getting me through,” he said. “Once you get moving, it'd feel a little better and it wouldn't be terrible. But there were points where I was just laying on my floor on my stomach for probably hours, in constant pain, after trying to train. And leading up to the surgery, it was just constant pain and there was no escaping it. My left leg wouldn't move, and everything was just bad. That was when it was a little scary.”
Finally, Gall got the surgery. Then the waiting began. When he got back to the Kill Cliff FC gym in Florida, he was greeted warmly by his teammates, even though he couldn’t join them yet.
“I was still in the PT and recovery process, but then everybody there got off the mat and came over to me and gave me a hug,” Gall recalls. “These are the best fighters in the world, and everyone came up. It was cool, and it felt great that first day. And then I would go in there and watch practice and it was just like watching all your friends play on the playground and you’re in time out.”
He laughs, and considering that the newly married Gall and his bride are now expecting their first child, it’s good that he gets to know the vernacular when his baby becomes a toddler. But soon, Gall got back to business. And when the green light came from his doctors, he was ready to take a fight.
And he’s got one in his backyard this weekend.
I ask him if it’s any consolation that he could still hang with the best in the world with a broken back.
“Even when I had my broken back, I know I can beat the best in the world,” he clarifies. “I've done it in the different training rooms around the world. I know it's easy to sit here and be like, ‘You're going to see this, this, and this, and I'm the f**king man, blah, blah, blah.’ But I hope I get to show what I can do because I don't think I've ever shown what I'm capable of. I think I came into the UFC young. I was a 1-0 fighter. I had some success, I had some setbacks, ‘win one, lose one’ was kind of recurring and I was never okay with that. Sure, you’ve got to have your growing pains and stuff, it's natural. But I know that not only can I hang with the best guys, I can beat the best guys. And that's what I'm looking to do. I'm looking to beat this guy (Hafez) up. This guy's tough. I was impressed with this fight against Jack Della Maddalena and he’s a tough guy, but he's not going to be able to get away with the stuff he got away with in that fight with me. It won't work for him.”
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So Mickey Gall is out of time out?
“I’m back to playing with my friends on the playground.”
UFC 302: Makhachev vs Poirier took place live from Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on June 1, 2024. See the Final Prelim and Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses, and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!