By:  | October 24, 2023 12:34 pm

Viktoria Dudakova trained for UFC 294 in Thailand and it seems she might have picked up something nasty there. After her win over Jinh Yu Frey she admitted she was suffering from a staph infection.

Had the doctors picked up on it she would not have been allowed to compete. Even Dudokova’s team advised her to pull out but she was absolutely determined to compete at the Etihad Arena last Saturday,

“Before the fight I had staphylococcus and so I was in terrible shape, I missed weight by 200g. I’ve never missed weight in my entire life but I was in the bath tub and I lost consciousness and then I did two more saunas and a bath afterwards,” she told UFC.com.

Lucky escape

Dudokova was still able to win two of the three rounds with all the scorecards reading 29-28 in her favour. It was only the second time in the Russian’s career that she has been the distance and the 24 year old didn’t sound too happy with her performance.

But considering the condition she was in Dudokova was just happy to emerge from Adbu Dhabi with her undefeated record intact,

“To tell you the truth it could have been much worse. My team was telling me to cancel the fight but I didn’t want to. With God’s health I was guided through it and now I need surgery.”

It sound like Dudokova was lucky to have even been allowed to compete. She seems to have the sort of ‘fight at all costs’ mentality that Dana White clearly prizes in his fighters,

“What you found out about me is that I came out at 5% of my strength and I still won. I hate missing weight, I hate cancelling fights, I will do whatever I have to do to come out there.”

Unfortunate area

Afterwards Dudokova admitted that the staph infection was in her buttocks which might explain why she was able to conceal it from the doctors. She didn’t take antibiotics as she was worried about USADA testing.

It sounds like the staph infection is so bad it will require surgery. If that is the case it will be the second time this year Dudokova has gone under the knife,

“I had a knee surgery and then afterwards I took the first fight and then there was no rest. I had to rehab during my camp and then I had to take the second fight. I got the win and I hope that finally I’ll be allowed to take some antibiotics and have surgery and everything will clear up.”