Hyder Amil says a stomach infection and ulcer were part of the reason his last two UFC fights went wrong, and he is now set to return against Christian Rodriguez on Saturday. The middleweight? No — the MMA fighter said the problem was physical, not tactical, and that he is finally healthy again.
Amil said he was puking and fighting stomach symptoms during those bouts, later learning that doctors found an ulcer and an infection in his stomach. He said the infection came after he ate something in Mexico, and that he was about eight pounds light in both of his last two fights because his stomach was compromised.
That matters because Amil is not talking about a slow slide or a vague off night. He said he is off the medications and that doctors cleared the infection, which gives his return this weekend a very different feel from the fights that preceded it. He won his first two UFC bouts by stopping Fernie Garcia and Jeong Yeong Lee, then followed that with a split-decision win over William Gomis before the recent skid.
The friction is in the explanation itself. Amil said he had been racing with a broken car for eight months, and he tied those struggles to a brutal stretch in which his dad died, his best friend died and his dog died across three fights in eight months last year. He also said that if the infection had not been cleared within a year or two, it could have turned into stomach cancer, a detail that underlines how serious the issue was even as he says he is ready to fight again.
Now the test is simple: whether the healthy version of Amil looks anything like the fighter who entered the UFC in 2023 and once looked like a rising problem for the division. Christian Rodriguez comes in on a two-fight skid, but Amil’s bigger question is whether the break from medication and the cleared infection are enough to give him back the version of himself he says was buried under illness.
Saturday gives him that chance on the main card of UFC Fight Night 279, and it is the first real chance to see whether the explanation for those losses was the beginning of a collapse or just the worst stretch of his career. Amil says he has fixed the car. The fight will show whether the engine starts cleanly.
