Mickey Gall needs to get by Salim Touahri first, but it sounds like the 27-year-old would love to run it back with the last man to defeat him, Diego Sanchez.
Gall faced the 37-year-old vet this past March, and Sanchez proceeded to finish him with ground-and-pound strikes in round two. It marked the first time in Gall’s brief, pro-career that he had been finished.
Well, in advance of his August 3rd bout with Touahri, Gall spoke with MMA Junkie. While doing so, Gall relayed the following.
“I was just sick, if had gotten me any other day of the year, he would have gotten his (expletive) kicked,” Gall said. ‘If I didn’t have the kidney complications, I would have killed him.”
“One-seventy is fine for me, it was just some health complications leading up to the fight. It zapped my energy and I was pretty useless in there. I was struggling for just balance, I was so exhausted, it’s nothing like I ever felt before but I don’t anticipate ever feeling that again.”
“I’d been sick leading up to the fight and I think that being sick dehydrated me and then with the dehydrating and the cutting weight I think that was a little too much for my body so that’s pretty much what that was.”
Now, sure, some Sanchez boosters may scoff at these comments. It was certainly a memorable win for Sanchez at the time. But, if Gall was seriously ill, it’s hard to deny that didn’t have an impact on the fight.
More recently, at UFC 239, Sanchez dropped a clear cut, decision to Michael Chiesa.
Gall – Touahri will be part of UFC Newark, which will feature Colby Covington taking on Robbie Lawler in the main event.
Here is the line-up for the upcoming card (via MMA Mania).
170 lbs.: Colby Covington vs. Robbie Lawler
205 lbs.: Volkan Oezdemir vs. Ilir Latifi
155 lbs.: Jim Miller vs. Clay Guida
155 lbs.: Joaquim Silva vs. Nasrat Haqparast
125 lbs.: Jordan Espinosa vs. Matt Schnell
125 lbs.: Lauren Murphy vs. Mara Romero Borella
125 lbs.: Antonina Shevchenko vs. Lucie Pudilova
185 lbs.: Trevin Giles vs. Gerald Meerschaert
205 lbs.: Darko Stosicvs. Kennedy Nzechukwu
170 lbs.: Ramazan Emeev vs. Claudio Silva
155 lbs.: Scott Holtzman vs. Dong Hyun Ma
170 lbs: Mickey Gall vs. Salim Touahri