During a sparring session preparing for the Daniel Rodriguez fight, Barberena took what he thought was a basic body kick but turned out to be something much more serious.

“I was training for the Daniel Rodriguez fight. Actually it was the Friday, the last training day before I head to Vegas. I was doing my sparring rounds, got kicked in the first practice round and, you know, wasn’t crazy hard or anything like that. Just kept going and finished my rounds. Did great, hung out for a while to talk to the guys and then it was time for me to head home which is a four-and-a-half hour drive,” Barberena explained.

“Was driving and I started to have some stomach pain and was telling my wife because I was talking to her on the phone. She’s like ‘Well i’ll come get you if you want to just pull over so you don’t even have to worry about it.’ I was like, ‘Oh no, I’ll make it, I’ll be fine. I’ll rest up and be good to fight next week.’ All of the sudden I started tingling everywhere from my head to my toes. Sweating like crazy like I just got done with a session. All of the sudden my vision went out. I was on the highway and I’m telling her I was like ‘Oh my gosh my vision went out I can’t see, I can’t see!’”

After his wife told him to pull over, Barberena was able to feel his way to the side of the highway and come to a stop. He was able to avoid hitting other drivers and causing an accident. His wife was able to call for an ambulance since his vision was still gone.

She was unable to get through to anyone to send help for Barberena and things seemed dire.

“Luckily my vision came back. I called the ambulance, pulled off the highway into a parking lot that happened to be a church parking lot. The ambulance came and got me. My wife had to talk me into getting into the ambulance,” Barberena said.

Turns out Barberena was worried about the cost of the ride to the hospital and was ready to drive himself there instead. His wife prevailed over him and he rode the ambulance to the emergency room.

After some initial hesitancy by the hospital staff to get him help right away Barberena began to experience even more symptoms that made his situation even more dire.

“I started having other symptoms while I was sitting in the wheelchair. I felt like I was going to pass out. All I could get out was ‘Help me, help me please, something’s wrong, help me!’ Luckily the nurse was right there with me. So they took me back right away and the doctor came right up to me.”

After explaining to the doctor what happened in practice the ER staff performed an ultrasound and wheeled him right into emergency surgery.

Barberena (15-7) takes on Jason Witt (18-7) in the first fight on the main card of UFC Vegas 33.

Watch and listen to Barberena tell his story in it’s entirety above! Keep it on CagesidePress.com for more from UFC Vegas 33.

The post UFC Vegas 33: Bryan Barberena Defies Death To Fight Again appeared first on Cageside Press.

It has been almost two years since Kang has been in the octagon. He last fought against Liu Pingyuan in his hometown of Busan, South Korea, back in 2019.

During the UFC Vegas 33 media day, Kang explained his lengthy layoff.

“I had some life changes after my last fight. I got married, so I did take some time off to prepare for that. I did have another fight booked, but then it got canceled because I got an orbital fracture,” Kang told Cageside Press through a translator on Thursday.

The South Korean did say that while the global pandemic made training a little bit hard with adjustments and delays, he did say that he was training during 2020.

Kang is on a three-fight win streak with wins over Pingyuan, Brandon Davis, and Teruto Ishihara. Next, he faces UFC veteran Rani Yahya in the co-main event of the evening. This will be Kang’s first UFC co-main event, and because of that, he is just a little nervous.

“Obviously, because I am the co-main event, there is a lot more attention with my fight, so it does make me a little nervous because of the pressure, but I’m great. I love it,” Kang said.

Yahya is coming off a submission win over Ray Rodriguez back in March.

Watch the full UFC Vegas 33 media day scrum with Kyung Ho Kang above. The event takes place this Saturday, July 31, at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, NV.

The post UFC Vegas 33: Kyung Ho Kang Feeling The Pressure Of A Co-Main Slot appeared first on Cageside Press.

Alvey announced on his TikTok page that his fight was off but gave very few details.

@smilensamwatch this video closely, many hints as to my next opponent (I all but tell you who it is) #SMILENSAM #august28th

♬ Blue Blood – Heinz Kiessling & Various Artists

“You’ve spent the last 12 weeks of your life losing close to 40-pounds bleeding, sweating, crying, tearing up, breaking yourself, breaking other people and just working your ass to the bone just to find out on your ride to the airport that your opponent who is Russian couldn’t make it for various reasons,” Alvey said on his post.

According to Alvey his opponent was unable to get into the United States from Russia for “various reasons”. He received the news on his way to the airport to head to Las Vegas but was told he would receive a replacement. Not long after he was informed that no opponent was available on short notice.

Alvey alluded to a new fight in August but no details on opponent or exact date were given.

The UFC confirmed Alvey’s news to MMA Fighting on Monday.

The longtime UFC veteran has not won a fight since June 2018 when he beat Gian Villante via Split-Decision. After that he’s lost 5 of 6 bouts the last one against Julian Marquez in April.

Kopylov is 0-1 in the UFC losing to Karl Roberson in Nov. 2019. No statement from Kopylov or his team was released at the time of this posting.

UFC Vegas 33 is headlined by a middleweight bout between Uriah Hall (18-9) and Sean Strickland (23-3). It takes place in the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, NV.

The post UFC Vegas 33: Sam Alvey vs. Roman Kopylov Off Card appeared first on Cageside Press.