UFC featherweight Soqid Yusuff gets an easier weight cut as he takes on Mairon Santos in a lightweight bout at UFC Vegas 106 on Saturday night.
Yusuff (13-4) has had a long road to back to the cage having last fought in April 2024. Since then injuries and health issues have taken him out of action until now.
“Dealing with life and injuries. Injuries, injuries. Trying to put my body back together,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“I’ve had a few problems with different disks in my spine. Mostly the ones in the lower back and a couple in the neck. Trying to be pain-free. Trying to live as a regular person before focusing on being a fighter. If you can’t be pain-free doing regular people stuff it’s a little bit hard to get into fist fights.”
Treatment for those issues can take a lot of time, but Yusuff credits his team in Maryland for getting him back to fight shape.
“It’s getting a lot better. The guys at LifeMed back in Maryland they really helped me out a lot. A lot of stem cell shots, a lot of physical therapy, and surgery in the future,” he said.
“I didn’t want to be gone for two years. Going to hold off on the surgery for a little bit.”
The choice to go up to 155 for this bout was due to a lot of factors. Still Yusuff isn’t sure it’s one that has to be permanent just yet.
“One health-wise. Health has been a real big thing with me. I’ve been fighting at 45 since I was a kid. Literally wrestled at that weight class. It wasn’t very healthy,” he said.
“I’ll see how the weight cut goes.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Sodiq Yusuff above.
