Cody Garbrandt's COVID Battle

That was my first time after the Sun-Sau fight since the KMS Agaki fight that I didn't get injured. I tore tendons and ligaments and stem cells out for eight weeks to, you know, and then, you know, I was like, man, I was back in the gym Monday, hungry to go. And then fucking COVID get COVID, get title shot. I'm like, I'm about to fight Figgy at 25. You got COVID bad, right? Well, you did you get COVID in the were you in the middle of training when you got it? Like were you worn out? Dead. I was doing one training session and actually I started the whoop and I was like, man, like my recovery score is 1% in the morning. My HRV was like 13. It was 1% for like a week and I would only do one workout and then I'd have to cancel on Chris and my lot. 1% is dead. Dude, that's crazy. But then I was like, you know, I'm just going to go ride the bike. You know, I was getting on those bikes doing, you know, 50 to 100 mile rides and just suffering because I had vertigo really bad. So I couldn't get in those uncompromised position that... When did you start experiencing vertigo? Vertigo was my first symptom of COVID, not knowing. And then I had to... Did you think it was head injury related? My doctor I went and saw, he's like, that's a concussion. I'm like, dude, I didn't get hit hard and sparring my fights. Like I worked on defense a lot. Like I know I would know if it was a concussive blow that gave me vertigo. And what did you experience it after training? Did you experience it? Honestly, it was during grappling. I was like grappling. You didn't like collide heads or anything? Nope. Nope. Just went through the scramble and next thing you know, I was just like fighting the hands off and the whole room was spinning. And I was actually training with Uriah and I was like, man, he's like, you all right? I'm like, what's going on? I was like kind of like didn't want to end the round. So I just kind of like closed my eyes and like, how do I do his hands? So he wouldn't choke me, you know, he was taking my back. So I was finished around and I was like, man, I just don't feel good. And I was nauseated for a few days. So I went to my doctor. He was giving me like anti-nausea medicine. I was making me so much more tired than I was because I was fatigued from training. I was just trying to train through it. I was like, I have a world title coming up in eight weeks. Like I have to get down to 25 and my weight was good. I wasn't restricting any calories. But you felt something was off with your body besides the vertigo. My body felt like I just was for a three-week period when I was training and I didn't feel like myself at all. I'm just mental clarity was was so do you think during that time you had COVID the whole time? I think so, you know, that is crazy. And that makes sense that it hit you so hard because you never gave your body a break and you were beating yourself up while you were fighting off COVID. Well that I think what happened was the kidney infection in the beginning of 2020. I was on all those antibiotics. I was on five different antibiotics. People don't even know this two weeks before the fight with the Sun Sal that infection came back. So I had to go to another infectious disease doctor that my doctor Hill found in Sacramento. This lady was amazing. Did two blood cultures found out got all the reports from the hospital in Jersey. The reports from the specialist in Cleveland studied those all in a day. Got a blood culture. I was on the wrong antibiotics. I didn't kill the infection just basically put a bandaid over it. So I had to go 10 days to IV fusion center to get antibiotic drip for 10 days while I'm training two weeks before the fight. Oh my god. I didn't let any of the UFC or anybody know I told Ali was kind of what was going on because I just needed to get in the knockdown. I said just put me in the knockdown. I know that it'll happen like to get me there healthy and I'll be good. So but that fucks with your endurance in a big way. Yeah, IV antibiotics are ruthless. It was tough man. It was and my strength-editioning coach. We were having the hardest time. I was hovering around, you know, I was getting my heart rate up 187 and then I couldn't get it below. I was like hover at 150 which I'm fine at Santa 150 and going up and being in that 150 to 180 zone that I can be there for a while. But we're working on the aerobic system. So to drop it, you know, I just couldn't drop it. It took about the last week of training before I flew out to the fight week to finally get my heart rate in like 35. Like after a hard like a minute 30 push and then drop it down. So I noticed something like that was it but mentally I was like, it's good. So two weeks out you did you had to do a 10-day cycle of IV antibiotics 10-day of oral. What? Yeah, I was on antibiotics for literally five months almost from Jersey. I was on five different antibiotics from the hospital. So from the Sun's out fight, how many days did you have where you weren't on antibiotics before the fight? I mean I declared that I had and I was on antibiotics all the way up to the fight. You know, I was taking probiotics and antibiotics. Yeah, I was so you were taking probiotics to counteract the effects of antibiotics in your car. A lot of probiotics. What were you taking? Frankie Eggers wife sent me a she would do they took care of me when I was in Jersey like hooked it up like coach brought me pizza in the hospital. He was like it was during covid when I had pizza, but don't you have to cut weight? I don't cut weight to 35. Really? I'm like right now probably 144. Wow. I don't and I stay, you know strong and fast and this is why I feel good at the fight 35. Yeah, I just died a little bit like everyone else does for 25. That's why everyone making is a big 25. It's not so you basically beat your immune system up while you had covid and then because of that you got covid really bad. Yes. So tell me what it was like. I was horrible. I mean I had vertigo was the first symptom and then when did they test you for covid? I didn't get tested. I went down to Mike Tyson's ranch. We're working with the smart cups company. We're all sponsored by I'm doing digital videos and it was our first kind of getting athletes together because they started doing fighters boxers and some rest. WWE Kurt Engle was there so I had to do like a rapid test. So we just did here and I waited, waited a while and they like, hey, we want you to do another one. All right, cool. We just didn't see some things we liked. I was like, all right. I'm like waiting for an hour. Do another one. I'm like, what did you guys another test? Yeah, what did I see? I'm like, oh, you failed the first one. I'm like, what's the sort of way you're telling it? Like, I want to stay away from everybody. Like, you know, it's me. And so I tested there in August and then I went, you know, quarantine, went home, did the whole. Did you do any medication? What did you do? I did a Z pack. I got on a helix and pneumonia. I got pneumonia vertigo. And then I did like a 21 day because I had it so bad I kept getting tested like every three weeks. And you kept having it. I kept having it. I did molecular tests, which is like some of the best ones to do. Is that the PCR test that we talked about? Yeah. And just kept negative, negative. My doctor's like, hey, we're going to quit testing you. You know, like you mean positive. You kept testing positive. Positive positive for it. And I'm like, dang, this is crazy. I mean, I had started to have the symptoms going away. Like the money was fine. My lungs were good. Like I felt it like I was that's when I started cycling a lot. So I was out there just pushing the lungs. That's when my doctor said it was the best thing to do is riding that bike that much is getting those lungs to keep working because you have pneumonia really bad. Jesus Christ. Wow. I felt horrible. I thought cycling was one of the hardest to do. Isn't it funny because you would think like most people would think that a guy who's a world championship caliber fighter is the type of guy who would get covid and it would just burn right through a system. But because you were training while you had it and beating yourself up, it just got deep into you. I mean, it took over my body. But I think honestly, from the kidney infection beyond antibody, my immune system was so weak. How much time was there between the kidney infection, the antibiotics and then getting covid? Dude, I literally got out of the hospital and I texted Dan and like, hey, I heard you did a press conference about having a fight. My kidney levels are good. I'm waiting for maybe you have to do a biopsy. But I want to fight. He's like, I work on it. I was like begging Sean. So you got covid right away. So I then I after the fight. Yeah. I had so June to August. OK, but so it was from the kidney infection, the fight to fight camps. You know, basically one didn't happen. Recovery. I'm building myself back up from where I was at getting ready to fight a sunset the first time in March. I literally had to start walking on a treadmill for a couple of weeks to get my I was in rough shape, rough, rough shape. And I started training on my business partner's house. He had a home gym because everything was closed. Our eyes. Jim wasn't open. So I got a treadmill. I got weights, kettlebells, you know, on a kettlebell. And so I went over there and just started to train. And I'm like, I'm getting myself ready. And it was brutal, brutal, brutal training, getting back in there. And this is pre covid. This is pre covid. This is a kidney infection. Kidding infection. Jesus Christ. But so your body was obviously already compromised. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Very calm. I still antibiotics. He still had me on antibiotics to clean out the infection. I was on it for like a 30 day antibiotic from the hospital. So August you get covid. How long before it clears your system? How long before you start feeling good? Months. Like I literally I went to Miami and work with this company called Amino Wells and they did like kind of injections. We talked about like kind of stem cell injections throughout my body, arms and I kind of started to feel a lot better at like the week after than I did a month on the injections of the three milliliters a week. And I felt really good. Body felt good. Clarity went away. I actually had to go to Arizona, the Mayo Clinic. Dana thought I had many years as you saw his doctor that did his surgery. They give him shot in his ears. Did all these testings, hearing tests. Did you have ringing in your ears? I had ringing bad on my left ear. And there's I have a loss of hearing in this year and they don't know why. I think maybe because this is my lead lead. And you get hit in the left ear a lot. That's all I can say. I'm like, I don't know. I haven't shot a gun without, you know, anything like that, you know, trying to figure out why is ringing. It makes like this popping noise. And I was just getting so dizzy I couldn't even do anything. So that probably contributed to the vertigo for sure, right? They said it wasn't... Usually it's ear things. Yeah, they said like crystals. I had vertigo before. I worked with UPMC. I was out for a whole year. My pro debut broke my hand. I had vertigo from crystals being out of the air. I went to the UPMC. Crystals? Crystals, yeah. It was an irregular tube that was throwing my equilibrium off, which basically is positional vertigo. A lot of it's... That's the most common one. You know, a lot of people just, you know, they can sneeze wrong or do something, sleep wrong on their neck, and they have vertigo. And there's some maneuver you do to put it back. But it wasn't positional vertigo. It was just literally COVID had me so messed up. So your body was so compromised from the antibiotics, the kidney infection, second kidney infection. So you were just basically getting your health back, which is crazy that you beat a sunsow in that state. Yeah. You had to be clearly compromised. There's no way you could have been 100% if you went through that much antibiotics before that fight. But I think that goes back to my middle state where I was at. I knew that I needed to get in that octagon and change this around. I was not living life like this. I was tired of living on a three-fight skid. I was ready to just get back in there. And when you know... Like for me, like we talked about earlier with the TJS fights, I don't have to go in there and be angry and upset and want to rip this head out of the eye. I hate this guy. I have hatred for this guy. It's a flip to switch. You know, you have it in you or you don't. And that's been breading me. I have it. So I just needed to get in there. I was like, not taking no for an answer. I mean, my coaches and stuff, like, oh, I don't know if you're going to make it. Coach Mark, I'd call him because we basically did... I would film my padwork and my sparring rounds and send it to a coach on WhatsApp. And then he would break everything down, do more of this, do less of that, looking good, looking fast on, your left toe counter off, things like that. So we did virtually, you know, camp through there. So then when it came out, I kept working the codes to, you know, keep working your codes, keep working, you know, make sure you're doing under nine, things like that. And then when we came to the fight week, it was just... So talk me through, you got COVID tested in August at the Tyson Show. You knew that you had it. When are you free of it? This is the first test that I've had since. Really? Today? My doctor quit testing it. February? February, yeah. Jesus. See how excited I was? I'm popping everywhere. I'm like, dude, I'm free. I'm free of it. It was literally, you know, a couple months of having it, testing it to where my doctor was like, I'm not going to send out any more tests because there were 72-hour return ones. Every time you did it, you had it? Every time I did that. And this is for months? Tested my son. He didn't have it. I mean, we were... Your wife didn't get it? She ended up getting it. But it wasn't as severe. It was a couple months ago that she got it. Two months ago, her twin got it. And it was kind of, you know, they were sick, but not like what would I have? Like, I was just... Yeah, well, you're a perfect example of, you know, obviously you're a super healthy guy and an elite athlete, but when you put yourself through training camp, there's only one way to get in shape. You got to beat yourself up. Yeah. There's no other way around it. It's true. And when you are so tough that you push through, even though you had COVID and you let that shit get deep into your system, there's a lesson in there for people, you know, because there's tough. Tough is important. You don't get where you get without being tough. But there's also... You got to be able to take a step back and go, it's not wise to push sometimes. And I think honestly, if I got tested before having COVID, then, I mean, before I first had the first... You probably never got it. You probably would have had it for a couple of weeks or whatever. Yeah, exactly. It wouldn't be as... It took over my body. Then I came back and I hit pads the first time. I'm like, dude, I'm in great shape because I was cycling 100 miles. You know, we had a hard pace. We were riding four or five times a week, you know, building the legs up. And so I started hitting pads again. I was excited. Like I'm back in the gym. I can be around people because on the bike, I was just on the bike trail on the road, just, you know, suffering on the bike. Came back, hit pads the first time. And man, my bicep was so sore. And then I remember going to sleep that night and waking up in excruciating pain. Wow. And my bicep was just filled up with blood and like this. I thought I tore my bicep. Oh, no. So I went to my doctor and he ultrasounded it. And he thought it was a distal bicep tear, you know, deemed it like that. I'm like, I gotta call Dana and tell him, like, hey, I'm just tore my bicep. And then get the MRI, get the MRI. Nothing's torn. It was a guy and then I had to go get an urgent ultrasound. I tore my vein in half and it ripped in half. Oh, wow. And then I had three blood clots. So I was immediately, they started injecting me with blood thinners. I was on, I've been on blood thinners for, you know, since. Yeah. This is because of COVID as well. That's another thing that happens with people that severe cases of COVID, they get blood clots. Didn't know. And my business partner, Jeremy Perkins, he owns a PNP medical, which they work with COVID or they work with blood clots. They have, you know, some, the device they sell to doctors and hospitals. And the whole time he's like, dude, I think you have a blood clot. I'm like, there's no way I have a blood clot. That's a number one silent killer. And the nation is blood clots because people don't know they have it. I had three of them in my arm. Didn't even know that's crazy. I just had like my arm was sore for awhile. So you were on blood thinners now. I just finished up my last, I was on blood thinners for almost three months. So I'm going to go ahead and do that. 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