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Drew McFedries: Standing Strong (page 2)

Terry E. Bush

You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down It was, however, an opponent of an entirely different nature that took Drew to the ground after the Radev fight, when he was diagnosed with a methalyn-resistant form of staph infection that resulted in hospitalization and a skin graft on the back of his thigh.

Mentally more than anything, the infection wore on Drew more than any hardcore training session at MFS. But because of his tremendous determination and great physical shape, he was able to cut the doctor’s predicted healing time nearly in half to get back to training.

No stranger to dealing with debilitating illnesses, Drew was diagnosed with Chron’s disease about six years ago. The disease, which affects the gastrointestinal tract, is typically characterized by episodes of severe abdominal pain and cramps and other excruciating bowel problems.

During the worst of it, Drew was hospitalized and says dealing with the daily fears and pain was “brutal.” His Chron’s disease is now largely manageable with medication and a focused diet. “I learned not to touch certain foods—I can’t drink Vitamin D milk, but I can drink skim milk; I can’t eat grapefruit, but I can eat an orange…I can only eat certain types of ice cream, nuts and bread…things like that.”

Losing a Mother, Gaining Perspective With all the trials life has placed in front of him, nothing could have prepared him for the murder of his mother Agnes just days before Christmas and weeks before his scheduled fight against Patrick Cote at UFC’s Fight Night 12 on Jan. 23.

“You know…I’ve seen so many things happen to my mother and I’ve seen her deal with so much and overcome so much—being beat up, strung out, in and out of hospital beds—that I thought she was indestructible.”

“I think a lot of my family members thought I was pretty cold to what had happened, but that really wasn’t it…I was really trying to stand strong for people in my family—mainly my little brother who is 14 because he was really confused about the situation.”

“A lot of people in the family didn’t do too well, including my sisters, and they may think I’m cold but it was more the fact that I wanted to stand tall for everyone else and kind of be that somebody to hold onto,” he explains.

“With my mom’s passing…it did reignite the fact that there were some really good times…in the end, if there’s anything to be said about my mother, it would be that she did hurt a lot of people and she do some real bad things, but nobody deserves to go out like that...every living thing deserves a chance and you never know what one more day will bring.”

To Fight or Not to Fight… Given the tragic events of his mother’s death and his desire to be the rock his family could lean on, Drew faced the difficult personal and professional decision of whether to commit to the scheduled fight against Patrick Cote just weeks away.

“Taking the fight wasn’t the hard part,” says Drew. “It was the fact that I’d be so scrutinized for it.” Drew says sometimes you have to take the good with the bad, and that some felt he should bow out of the fight in consideration of the tough year he had with recovering from the staph infection and his mother’s death.

“I needed to take that fight to prove I could still do it…it really wasn’t about the fight…it was more about if I could persevere and push through this, and I did.”

Training for it, Drew says, was an entirely different issue. “It affected my training greatly because the fight game is very mental…it’s a very mental battle you fight to get yourself prepared.”

“It was hard to keep it together—you break down—I was cracking.”

Before the fight even began, Drew considered himself a winner—regardless of what the outcome might be—solely based on what he had overcome over the past year and his ability to even step inside the Octagon.

After a hearty standup exchange, Cote hit Drew and rocked him backwards into the cage, and even though Cote’s punches weren’t making it past Drew’s hands that were held up to shield his face, referee Herb Dean stopped the fight at 1:44 of the first round. In retrospect, Drew doesn’t fault the referee for what some saw as a quick and controversial stop.

“From Herb Dean’s standpoint, maybe I would’ve stopped it too. In my position, I know I should’ve fought back…bounced back. In my mind, I feel I didn’t react fast enough.”

Since then, McFedries scored a quick TKO win over Marvin Eastman and dropped a fight to Mike Massenzio via kimura.

Pushing Forward Drew takes away from his life and Octagon experiences a belief that all of his trials have, in some way, shaped and molded him into the realistic, hardworking athlete he is today. “I think those lessons teach me that everything and anything can happen to you.”

And with the possibility that anything can happen very much a reality, Drew keeps pushing forward in the UFC, stating, “I’m so fortunate to be in the UFC—it’s a great organization—it’s the most rockin’ experience a guy can have to have 20,000 people screaming for you.”

In just 29 short years, life has thrown just about everything at Drew McFedries. His former coach Merv Habenicht says, “He has an inner spirit that keeps him going.” Some may call it the human spirit and others may call it the warrior spirit, but no matter what you call it, Drew McFedries has it. And after one hell of a year, Drew continues to stand tall with the intention of making an indelible mark in the UFC’s light heavyweight division. « BACK TO PAGE 1