Sodiq Yusuff | Always Grateful, No Matter What

While injuries are a part of the sport and all of them carry varying degrees of annoyance, pain, and misery, back injuries and anything involving the spine are particularly troublesome and worrying due to the interconnected nature of the human body.

A broken hand sucks, but doesn’t necessarily impact much beyond the fingers, the hand itself, and at most, the arm its connected to, where back and neck issues bring up concerns about the spine and nerves, and a herniated disc or tweak somewhere along that track can trigger issues elsewhere in the body.

Such was the case for Yusuff on the day he walked out of practice in tears, unsure about his future competing under the UFC banner.

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“This has probably been the closest I’ve ever been to hanging it up, just because my body wasn’t keeping up anymore,” admitted the Maryland-based fighter, who carries a 13-4 mark into his return to action on Saturday at the UFC APEX. “There was one day I was trying to push through a practice and everything hurt at the time.

“I’ve had a couple shoulder problems (in the past) and at that time, my ankle was also bothering me. I’ve had knee problems, but the biggest one has always been the herniations in my spine. So I was in the middle of wrestling practice and I was having a hard time, constantly getting stingers, my back is locking up, and I literally left practice crying; I left in tears. I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know how much longer I want to do this for.’

“It’s always the same for me: the closer it gets, the more it feels like I’m very lucky and I’m very, very blessed to be able to do this,” continued the ever-positive athlete. “No matter how things go, at the end of the day, I’m one of the few people that is getting to live out my dreams. These are things that as I kid, I talked about doing, and now I’m living in it.

“Sometimes we lose perspective of that based on results or internet trolls, stuff like that, but whenever it gets to fight week, closer to fight time, it all starts to hit again like, ‘Man, you’re literally living your dreams!’ The gratitude is always there for me.”

That perspective and gratitude fuel the way Yusuff is approaching this weekend’s clash with Santos, who enters off a debated split decision win over Francis Marshall in March and brandishing a 16-1 record overall.

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It’s also an extension of the message he preaches to those he trains with and that are looking to learn from his example.

“I kind of look at it as (playing) the hand that you’re dealt, and you’ve got to put your best foot forward,” he said. “Whatever your 100 percent is, you have to maximize that. I tell the guys at the gym all the time, ‘If your 100 percent is being able to train one hour a month, maximize those opportunities.’

“So it’s one of those things where you can’t wallow in pity or say ‘woe is me.’ Everybody goes into these situations all the time with something off — people make fun of (Kamaru) Usman’s knees all the time, and that’s one of those things that motivates me all the time.”