Paris, France – You couldn’t tell from the stoic demeanor but UFC lightweight Benoit St.Denis had a bit of a rollercoaster ride in the lead up to UFC Paris on Saturday night.
St.Denis (10-1) came into the fight with Gabriel Miranda with a compromised toe after suffering an injury prior to his last fight.
“Before my fight with Niklas Stolze I had an injury. I could not lift my toe anymore, but I wanted to fight. I had odd preparation so it was one month before the fight against the German guy (Stolze) in Vegas. So we did no surgery. It was ok. I had a lot of times where my toe was going into the ground. It injured me a little bit so I had to train in shoes obviously,” St.Denis told Cageside Press among other media in his post-fight scrum.
“This time just after the fight with Niklas I got surgery. 6 weeks without any sports so I had only three weeks to prepare (for) this fight. It was best and oddest camp I ever had. Three weeks, the firs two weeks you feel like sh*t, because you haven’t trained for a long time. The last week I was starting feeling great again. The toe was still a bit open.”
Following the fight at UFC Paris St.Denis’ toe was bleeding pretty badly in the cage.
“I managed to go into the cage. I knew it’s only 15 minutes. Obviously after a couple of kicks it’s bleeding. It’s just the fight game. You never have a perfect preparation. There’s always small injuries. It’s a part of life of any athlete. Now I will take time to heal it up,” he said.
You think a toe injury was the only issue? St.Denis got married last week. As in a week before his bout against Miranda.
“I had my marriage last week with my wife. She did absolutely everything she can to give me time to prepare for the fight. She was able to manage to do good stuff with my family, her family, our friends, to prepare the marriage instead of me doing it,” St.Denis said.
Then the man with the stoic face managed a smile.
“The only condition was me getting the win tonight so it’s done. Now I’m a happy man about that. Just wanted to say this is the wine (holds up a bottle) I had at the wedding. My wife and me. It’s going to go to Dana White. Thank you for coming out in Paris.”
For now it’s off to the honeymoon for the newly-married St.Denis.
“Maybe I have to take some medicine with the food so some stoppage (from normal honeymoon fun), but we will manage.”
Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Benoit St.Denis above.
