"Look at Sandhagan against Font" - UFC lightweight prospect disagrees with Bryce Mitchell's claim of loss against Ilia Topuria not being legit

UFC featherweight Bryce Mitchell revealed in a press conference that he was injured leading into his fight with Ilia Topuria, which he ended up losing via submission.

Bryce Mitchell is set to compete against Dan Ige at UFC Fight Night: Fiziev vs. Gamrot on September 23rd. During the press conference leading up to the event, he said:

"The loss doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that my pride wouldn't let me pull out of the fight. I shouldn't even have been in that damn cage. I lied to my coaches. I would not tell them how sick I was because I didn't want to appear as a coward. I took the fight impaired, and I had to live with the consequences. It was so stupid of me to think that I could go in that state and beat such a great fighter."

Bryce Mitchell went on to ask for a rematch, saying that the fight against Topuria, which he lost via submission, didn't count. This prompted a response from lightweight Chase Hooper, who said:

"At this level, nobody really ever comes into a fight 100% healthy especially with the weight cut and how hard you’re going to train over the course of a camp. Look at Sandhagan against Font; Corey came in hurt and ended up tearing his tricep, but did what was needed to win."

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Bryce Mitchell's comments raise the question of fighter health leading into fights

Given the nature of their preparation and the sport itself, injuries are all but inevitable. Apart from injuries sustained during the fight, fighters often, for a myriad of reasons, go into fights at less than a 100%.

While part of this can be attributed to their financial needs, that doesn't paint the whole picture. The sport of mixed martial arts is inherently extremely taxing on the body.

In fact, back in the day, fighters would often take part in hard sparring, which is pretty much all out fighting, except it was in the gym. Fighters would get knocked out, sustain severe injuries and still show up to compete come fight night.

While there isn't a clear solution to this issue as of yet, it is definitely something that should be considered as the sport moves forward. Bryce Mitchell is just the latest among a long list of names who have come forward to disclose injuries after the fact.