Sometimes a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter just can't fight the poop pain.
Now, multiply that by a factor of 10, and you will know exactly how Chris Weidman was feeling prior to his fight against Vitor Belfort at UFC 187 this past Saturday (May 23, 2015) in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to Weidman, if he looked pale and a little sickly to the viewers as he was heading into the Octagon, your eyes weren't deceiving you.
During his appearance on The MMA Hour, "All American" revealed that he had to go to the bathroom so bad that he nearly became the first fighter ever to stall a bout while he took care of business.
But, he toughed it out and decided to take care of business inside the Octagon first:
"I'll be honest. It was my first time ever that I had to go to the bathroom bad. I could not believe this was going to happen. I'm going to crap myself in the middle of this cage. I didn't know, as soon as Vitor's walkout music came on, was concentrating, all I could think about was that I didn't know if I should run into the bathroom now or hold it. I didn't know what was going to happen. That's really what was going through my mind the whole time walking out. I thought I would be the first person that had to run from a fight to go to the bathroom, or they'd have to hold the fight for me. But, I didn't want to tell anybody because when you say it out loud it makes things worse. So, when we were getting ready to do the walkout, I gave Ray my flag, usually I hold it, but I gave it to him so I could focus on not crapping myself pretty much. So yeah, you were right, there was definitely something not normal."
It may have been something new to happen to Weidman prior to a fight, but it isn't the first time his bowels have given him problems at the worst time, revealing that he once crapped himself during a sparring session.
After surviving an early onslaught from "The Phenom" -- all while keeping his bowels in check -- Weidman went on to recover and finish the Brazilian in the very first round to retain his 185-pound belt (video replay here).
But, imagine if Weidman had lost and then he had to reveal the root cause of his slow start. It would've been the crappiest excuse ever.