Las Vegas, NV — Mickey Gall has finally explained the injury that forced him to withdraw last year.
Gall was supposed to fight welterweight prospect Miguel Baeza last September. However, nine days before the event, Gall pulled out of the fight with an undisclosed injury. Well, we finally know what it was.
“Yeah, I wasn’t really talking about it. I hurt my back, and it was pretty debilitating. I was trying to get up and push through, push through, but it kept getting worse and worse. Like, I never thought I’d have to pull out of a fight. You know, I was young and dumb and was like, ‘I’ll never pull out of a fight,'” Gall said during the UFC Vegas 32 media day on Wednesday. “I just did think I’d make a good showing of myself, and I wasn’t training-putting in the work I supposed to. So I had to cancel practices telling my guys, ‘I’m hurt, I’m hurt.’ We got it checked out, and there was definitely some stuff wrong. I did all of the boring BS [physical therapy]…I had to do that a be a professional.”
It’s been over a year since Gall last competed; his last outing was a loss to Mike Perry in June of last year. At UFC Vegas 32, Gall returns against Contender Series alumni Jordan Williams. And the 29-year old is no longer concerned about his back issues.
“I’m happy to be back. I wasn’t talking about it because I was thinking people could like target it, but it’s completely better. Like, how could you really target my back, you know what I mean? Good luck.”
Gall is looking to get back into the win column this weekend against Williams. However, the welterweight mentioned Wednesday that he would like to get on the Madison Square Garden card, which is rumored to be taking place in November.
Watch the full UFC Vegas 32 media day scrum with Mickey Gall above.
