Ahead of former UFC star, Uriah Hall’s boxing fight on the Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva card, he got candid about his mental health.
“I was in a weird place,” Hall reported during a media scrum (h/t MMA Junkie). “After leaving MMA, man, I fell into a really deep hole. If I could talk about it, I fell into a deep depression. A lot of athletes, when you do something for so long, that’s what you identify as, you know? You’re a football player only or you’re a fighter only. People don’t see that when you walk outside you’re like, ‘Wait, there’s nothing else for me to do?'”
Hall left MMA in August after a long career including an appearance on The Ultimate Fighter in 2013.
“When I say I felt depressed, I even at one point looked at my firearm. Like, wait a minute, I can go down a really dark path if I don’t get out of this. And people don’t talk about that s***,” he said. “Depression is a real thing, and if you don’t have the right support group, support system, you won’t get out of it, man. If you look at like Robin Williams and all those types of people, you’re like, ‘How the f**** did you kill yourself?’ I get it. Like, at that moment, I finally f***ing understood. … I sat on my couch for literally a week straight not knowing what to do. I remember opening the door for the first time seeing sunlight, I was like, ‘What the f***.’”
Hall is one of a long line of professional fighters speaking out about mental health including Khalil Rountree and Paddy Pimblett.
Uriah Hall reveals he had suicidal thoughts after MMA retirement