Guy Mezger Interview: Talks About Injury, Pulling Out of UFC 50
By Ken Pishna, BoxingInsider.com
Unfortunately for both Guy Mezger and the UFC, Mezger has had to drop off of the UFC 50 card. Fortunately for Mezger, he is not quite in as dire straights as was initially believed. In an exclusive interview to BoxingInsider and MMAWeekly, Mezger spoke late last night with Ken Pishna and cleared the air on just what his situation is and how he is doing.
BoxingInsider.com: Let’s get right to it Guy, we’ve been told that you are out of UFC 50 and that it sounds like you collapsed during training and then had a stroke. What exactly is the situation?
Guy Mezger: I never collapsed during training or anything. What happened was, I trained very, very hard Monday night. I had a long drive back from Los Angeles. I was a little worn out and dehydrated. I went to bed early and kept having to get up to use the restroom. By about 1 in the morning I was having trouble sleeping. I took some medicine to help me sleep and then got up around 7 or 7:30. I literally rolled out of bed and the nightstand is right next to the bed and I bumped my head.
BoxingInsider.com: So this was Tuesday morning and Ken Shamrock’s house, right?
Guy Mezger: Yeah, this was Tuesday morning at Ken’s. So, I got up and went downstairs to jump in the shower and then went back upstairs. I laid down a little bit because I was going to get up and cook breakfast. Tanya, Ken’s wife, had got up and cooked and said that breakfast was served. I started walking downstairs. They have a kitten here and it plays ninja kitty and jumps out at you. The kitty jumps out in front of me and instead of stepping on it, I kind of jumped over it about 3 or 4 stairs. When I landed, my knee buckled a bit and when I got back up Tanya asked me if I was all right. I said yes, but she said I seemed kind of woozy, that I wasn’t responding correctly, I seemed a little uncertain on my feet.
BoxingInsider.com: So, did you actually fall over the cat?
Guy Mezger: Well, I just stumbled a little. I was trying not to kill the cat. Basically that was it, Tanya said, “I don’t think everything is okay.” I said, “I’m fine.” Ken came downstairs and said that he wanted to get it checked out because Tanya said that I wasn’t reacting right and he said, “You’re really not.” I just wrote it off as being tired. I mean Monday afternoon’s training was whacked. We trained our asses off, but I didn’t black out, I didn’t have a stroke, I didn’t collapse.
BoxingInsider.com: Did you have any problems at all at training on Monday, anything out of the ordinary?
Guy Mezger:No, not all. I was an absolute stud. I started off with six 5-minute rounds with 1-minute rests. Then I did five 3-minute rounds of wrestling with 1-minute rests. Then I did two more 5-minute rounds of wrestling and a 5-minute round on the heavy bag and I did my conditioning after that.
BoxingInsider.com: That’s a pretty heavy load, but nothing out of the ordinary for you when you’re preparing for a fight?
Guy Mezger:Yeah. It’s nothing that I hadn’t been doing already. And it’s not like I was impeded by anything. Lets put it this way; I wore out all of my training partners.
So, we went to the hospital. Originally, Ken checked me in because he thought I had banged my head. I get to the hospital and they start running all these tests. I guess with Ken coming in and nearly dying of a heart attack, immediately they started hooking me up to all this heart stuff and I’m freaking out. I’m telling them it’s not my heart. I’m like, “My friend thinks I might of hit my head too hard. To be honest, I’ve been busting my ass and I think I’m dehydrated and I didn’t get good sleep last night. I think I’m just not recovering.”
BoxingInsider.com: So, they still did all of the heart tests?
Guy Mezger: Yeah. I got my heart checked out and the lady who did the echocardiogram said, “Listen, you have a heart like a race horse. It’s a little bit large because you’re an athlete. Everything is perfect on it. There are no abnormalities here.”
So after spending the night there, by the time I talk to the cardiologist, I talk to the doctor. They’re taking my blood pressure and drawing blood, sticking needles in me. Finally, I get everything worked out; I get a clear bill of health from the cardiologist and the other doctor. The neurologist comes to see me and says, “You probably just had a reaction because you took a full ambion when you only normally take a half of an ambion.”
BoxingInsider.com: Is ambion the sleep medication that you took?
Guy Mezger: Yeah, it’s a sleep medication. So, the neurologist said that he wanted to do one more study and he did a CAT scan. They found something unusual in the CAT scan, so I did an MRI.
BoxingInsider.com: And what happened with the MRI?
Guy Mezger: That’s where they found something. So they released me yesterday [Wednesday] and I had to come back in today to see the neurologist. He said that, “You’ve got a problem with your brain. We’re not exactly sure what happened. It’s in your front right lobe. It’s kind of a weird situation because it doesn’t affect your speech, you’re not dizzy or anything like that. It’s the area that affects your music appreciation.”
I said, “There you go, something is wrong because lately I’ve started listening to a lot of country music. Could that be the cause?” [laughs]
He said there’s been some sort of flair up in my brain and they’re not sure what it is or what caused it. It’s a small abnormality. He said it’s somewhat equivalent to having a concussion. It’s more severe than a concussion, but they don’t know what caused it. They have a million more tests to do.
BoxingInsider.com:So at this point, they haven’t even narrowed it down to this or that?
Guy Mezger: No. They’re not so much worried about what it is as they are about why it happened, so it doesn’t happen again. The doctor seemed very positive. He said,” Listen, you’ve just got to lay off for two months. You can’t take a shot to the head for two months. It’s like having a very bad concussion. You’ve got to let your brain heal up. You’re not going to have any side effects from it.” Thank god! Because when you start thinking about the brain, you get a little bit worried. I mean, I’ve got kids I’ve got to take care of; I’ve got a baby on the way. On top of that, I’ve got this really hot wife that would be a drag to die on.
BoxingInsider.com: Did the doctor’s feel that you did have some sort of mild type of stroke or what are they calling it?
Guy Mezger: No, no. They don’t think I had a stroke. It’s having the same symptoms of a stroke. It’s hard to say exactly what it is… the way they can tell you’ve had a stroke is they go into your brain afterward and they see the damage that’s done and that’s how they tell.
BoxingInsider.com: You sound pretty upbeat about the whole situation…
Guy Mezger: Both the doctor here and my normal practitioner were extremely confident. They said that I could still train as long as I don’t get hit in the head. I can still lift. I can still run. Most guys that have strokes can’t do that. They can’t get the brain worked up. My doctors aren’t worried about the function of the brain. They’re worried about what caused it. They’re kind of thinking that it was because I was really worn out and dehydrated, just a kind of freaky set of circumstances. They both said, “In two months, you should be able to get back in the ring if that’s what you want to do.”
BoxingInsider.com: As it stands, you’re out for 2 months and then you can get right back in there as long as they don’t find anything serious wrong when they do the tests?
Guy Mezger: Yeah. I’m out for two months as long as they don’t find anything serious. I would normally be very worried about the whole thing, but just the confidence that both doctors had… and the fact that they didn’t tell me to stop exercising. And I think they had a genuine confidence, not a “let’s make Guy feel good” confidence.
BoxingInsider.com:What’s going through your head now?
Guy Mezger: Well, the problem I have is this: Zuffa and Dana White have given me an opportunity to come in and fight for the UFC. I was really looking forward to fighting Tito again. I put my entire life on hold for the last 12 weeks. I mean I’m an extremely busy guy. Between my family and I have a couple of businesses… so for me to put 12 weeks of my life on hold to train for a fight is very difficult. A lot of people have sacrificed to make this happen. Ken has busted his ass. My wife, who is pregnant, had to spend the last 6 weeks by herself putting up with all the crap that comes with pregnancy all by herself. I just feel like I’m letting everybody down.
BoxingInsider.com: Well, just from the reaction I’ve seen tonight, a lot of people are disappointed, but I think everyone was really more concerned that you are okay.
Guy Mezger: I’m going to be okay. It’s when I’m going to be able to climb back in the ring that I’m more concerned about. There’ve been some tense moments the last couple of days, but somehow I just knew that I wasn’t hurt. I mean, I got up this morning and ran 5 miles.
BoxingInsider.com: Where does this leave you at this point in your career?
Guy Mezger: I was really looking to have a good show here for the UFC. The UFC is where I started in mixed martial arts and I’ve been playing with the idea of retiring and I really wanted to step up and have a great fight and look to maybe put some finish to my career. This is definitely not the way that Guy Mezger wants to go out.
BoxingInsider.com: I’m sure if it’s possible, you will bounce back.
Guy Mezger: Hopefully, if things aren’t too screwed up in my head. Ken’s fighting in February and I would love the opportunity to fight on the same card. It’s funny because all of the years that I’ve been fighting with Ken; we’ve never fought on the same card. Like I said this is not the way that I want to go out and I’m not going to go out this way. Everyone has given up a lot for this fight from Ken to my wife to my employees. My employees have been busting their asses, my business partners…BoxingInsider: I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that as disappointed as I am that this fight isn’t going to happen, I’m more glad that you’re going to be okay.
You know, as disappointed as I am, I look in my wife’s face and the relief on her face knowing that I’m okay is worth more than any UFC belt. I’m a lucky man. I have an incredible, incredible woman by my side.
dachte schon ich bin im MMA und Wrestling alleine 
