‘This Could Be The Night I Don’t Wake Up’

Punahele Soriano nearly didn’t make it to UFC Vegas 67 this weekend (Sat., Jan. 14, 2023).

At just age 30, Soriano hoped to get back in action sooner than he is now, but a pair of sicknesses put him down for the temporary count.

“I got super, super sick. I think I almost died,” Soriano said at UFC Vegas 67 media day (h/t MMA Junkie). “I had like shingles that turned into cellulitis on my face and under my heart (laughs). It was funny, I ended up going to the ER (emergency room) and they had to give me antibiotics and all that crap. But the night before, I remember just laying on the couch and it felt like I was in a chokehold and I was like, ‘This could be the night I don’t wake up,’ and I was just like, ‘Oh, I hope I wake up,’ and I went to bed (laughs). I woke up.”

Soriano has been one of the more entertaining prospects on the rise at 185 pounds since arriving on the UFC scene in Dec. 2019 after winning on Dana White’s Contender Series. In July 2022, Soriano scored a wicked knockout over Dalcha Lungiambula (watch highlights) and looks to get back on a winning streak against Roman Kopylov at the UFC APEX.

While the Hawaii native survived his brief health scare, he was left with constant reminders.

“It was just bacteria that got under the skin or something,” Soriano said. “I got some crazy scars that you can kind of see on my face from where it was and under my chest there’s a nice little scar from it. So, that’s cool.”

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