Drakkar Klose returns to action this weekend for the first time since getting pushed by his planned opponent Jeremy Stephens back at the UFC Vegas 24 weigh-ins in 2021. What’s very crazy is that he will return a year to the day on April 16.
On that morning, during the UFC Vegas 24 face-offs, out of nowhere, Stephens pushed Klose, causing some nasty whiplash. The fight was canceled as Klose could not fight.
Here’s the clip of Jeremy Stephens pushing Drakkar Klose.
As if this fight wasn’t heated already. #UFCVegas24pic.twitter.com/305uSPqiJm— Alex Behunin | RAINBET.COM (@AlexBehunin) April 16, 2021
Fast forward a year, and Klose is still suffering from that push, and Stephens will fight for the PFL next weekend.
The damage was done…
In a recent interview with BJPenn.com, Klose detailed what he has been going through, including what happened afterwards.
“The damage was done, I’m still not 100 percent from that,” Klose said. “It’s something I will probably need surgery on eventually. I told myself if I have to get surgery, I’m just going to call it quits. Just trying to manage it and do the therapy and all that. That’s the last thing I want on weigh-in day is to be touched. All week he was being buddy-buddy, and then come weigh-in day his whole attitude changed. I wish he would have kept the same energy all week because then I wouldn’t have gone in there with my guard down.”
Klose Almost Retired
Klose was even close to calling it a career, following the shove from Stephens.
“I did think that was going to be the end of me. I was having really bad headaches, dealing with my neck issue, it is something serious. When I saw my doctor he talked about fusing my neck and I didn’t want to hear that. I want to go out on my terms, I don’t want to go out with the doctor telling me I can’t do this. It was a herniated disc, C6, C7, as soon as it happened my whole arm went numb, and later that night, things weren’t right and I woke up couldn’t open my eyes, a real bad headache.
“There is a lot of other stuff that I will probably say when I’m done fighting but they pay me so I will keep my mouth shut.”
After the fight was canceled, Klose was given his show money, but the UFC said nothing, which really hurt Klose. On top of that, Klose drove home in tears.
“They ended up giving me my show money but they never said anything to me,” Klose added. “To me, it’s kind of ridiculous, he really f*cked me up. I remember driving home from that fight and I was crying, I don’t know why I was crying but my head was so messed up.
The 34-year old finished by saying if it wasn’t for his wife Cortney Casey fighting in 2021, “I’d probably be living on the street or working at McDonald’s or something like that.”
Klose fights Brandon Jenkins this weekend at UFC Vegas 52.
