Cody Garbrandt's COVID Battle

The Jurgen experience. That was my first time after the Sunsal fight since the KM is a Ghaki 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, so I was like, man, I was back in the gym Monday hungry to go. And then, [ __ ] COVID. Get COVID, get title shot. I'm like, I'm about to fight Figgy at 25.

You got COVID bad, right? Did you get COVID 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 one percent in the morning. My HRV was like 13. It was one percent for like a week, and I would only do one workout, and then I'd have to cancel on Chris and my lot. I'm like, one percent is dead, dude. That's crazy.

But then I was like, you know, I'm gonna 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 positions.

When did you start experiencing vertigo? Vertigo was my first symptom of COVID, not knowing. And then I had—did you think it was head injury? I thought my, uh, my doctor, I went and saw, he's like, "That's a concussion." I'm like, dude, I didn't get hit hard in 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.

What did you experience it after training? Did you experience it? Honestly, it was during grappling. I was grappling. You didn’t like collide heads or anything? Nope. Just went into a scramble, and next thing you know, I was just like fighting the hands off, and the whole room was spinning.

I was actually training with Uriah, and I was like, man. He’s like, “Yeah, all right.” I'm like, what's going on? I was like kind of like didn't want to end in the round, so I just kind of like closed my eyes and held onto his hand so he wouldn't choke me. You know, he was taking my back, so I finished the round, and I was like, man, I just don't feel good. I was nauseated for a few days.

So I went to my doctor. He was giving me like anti-nausea medicine that was making me so much more tired than I was because I was fatigued from training. I was trying to train through it. I was like, I have a world title coming up in eight weeks. I have to get down to 25, and my weight was good. I wasn't restricting any calories.

You felt something was off with your body besides the vertigo? My body felt like I just was—for about a three-week period when I was training, and I didn't feel like myself at all. And 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 notice two weeks before the fight with the Sunsao, the 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 specialists 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 band-aid over it. So I had to go 10 days to the 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 it was kind of what was going on because I just needed to get in that octagon. I was like, dude, just put me in that gun. I know that it'll happen. Like, get me there healthy, and I'll be good. So, but that [ __ ] with your endurance in a big way.

Yeah, IV antibiotics are ruthless. It was tough, man. It was—and my strength and conditioning coach, we were having the hardest time. I was hovering around, you know, I was getting my heart rate up to 187, and then I couldn't get it below, and like hover at 150, which I'm fine at. Staying at 150 and going up and being in that 150 to 180 zone, I could 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's, 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—did you have to do a 10-day cycle of IV antibiotics? In a 10-day of, um, 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 Ascension fight, how many days did you have when you weren't on antibiotics before the fight? I mean, I declared that I was on antibiotics all the way up to the fight. You know, I was taking a lot of antibiotics, right? Yeah, I was talking.

So you were taking probiotics to counteract the effects of a lot of probiotics? Yeah. What are you taking? Um, Frankie Edgar's wife sent me, uh—she would do—they were—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. Pizza. But don't you have to cut weight?

I don’t cut weight to 35. Really, dude? I'm like right now probably 144. Oh wow. Like, I don't—and I stay, you know, strong and fast, and this is why I feel good at the fight 35.

Yeah, I have to just diet a little bit like everyone else does for 25. That's what everyone's making is a big. Yeah, we're going to 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, yeah. So tell me what it was like. It was horrible. I mean, I had the vertigo was the first symptom, right? And then when did they test you for COVID? I didn't get tested. Ty went down to Mike Tyson’s ranch. We were working with the smart cups company. We're all sponsored by him, doing digital videos, and it was our first kind of getting athletes together because they started doing fighters, boxers, and some WWE. Kurt Angle was there, so I had to do like a rapid test, like we just did here, and um, I waited to wait a while, and they were like, "Hey, we want you to do another one."

I'm like, "All right, cool." Like we just didn't see some things we liked. I was like, "All right, I'm waiting for an hour. Do another one." I'm like, "What did you guys—the other test?" Yeah, what'd you guys see? I'm like, "Oh, you failed the first one." I'm like, "Well, that's a subtle way you're telling it." Like, I want to stay away from everybody.

Like, you know, everyone's coming up to me. So I tested there in August, and then I went, you know, quarantined, went home, did the whole—did you do any medication? What did you do? Um, I did a Z-Pack. Um, I got on an inhaler because I had pneumonia. I got pneumonia, vertigo, and then I did a like a 21-day because I had it so bad. I kept getting tested like every three weeks and you kept having—? I kept having— I did molecular tests, which was like, you know, some of the best ones to do.

Is that the PCR test? Yeah, we're talking 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 keep testing positive? Yeah, positive for it. Yeah, and I'm like, dang, this is crazy. I mean, and I had started to have the symptoms going away. Like pneumonia 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 what my doctor said 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.

Like I felt horrible. I thought cycling was one of the hardest things 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 his system.

But because you were training while you had it and beating yourself up, it just got deep into you. Deep. I mean, it took over my body, but I think honestly from the kidney infection beyond the antibiotics, my immune system was so weak.

How much time was it between the kidney infection, the antibiotics, and then getting COVID? Dude, I literally got out of the hospital, and I texted Dana like, "Hey, I heard you did a press conference about having a fight. My kidney levels are good. I'm waiting for maybe having to do a biopsy, but I want to fight." He's like, "All right, work on it." I was like begging John.

So you got COVID right away? So I then I, after the fight, yeah, I had so June to August. Oh, okay. But, uh, so it was from the kidney infection, the fight, two fight camps, you know, basically one didn't happen.

I’ve been building myself back up from where I was at, getting ready to fight a Sun Sao for the first time in March. You know, I literally had to start walking on a treadmill for a couple weeks to get my—I was in rough shape, rough shape. And I started training at my business partner's house. He had a home gym because everything was closed. Uriah's gym wasn't open.

He said, "Dude, I got a treadmill. I got weights, kettlebells, you know, and kettlebells.” 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.

This is pre-COVID? This is pre-COVID. This is kidney infection. Jesus Christ. But so your body was obviously already compromised. Oh yeah, I was, yeah, very compromised. I was still on 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 worked with this company called Amino Wells, and they did like kind of injections. We talked about kind of stem cell injections throughout my body, arms. And I kind of started to feel a lot better at like the week after that I did a month on the injections with 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 Meniere's disease, so I went and saw his doctor that did his surgery to give him a shot in his ears, did all these testings, hearing tests.

Did you have ringing in your ears? I had ringing bad at my left ear, and there's—I have a loss of hearing in this ear, and they don't know why. I think maybe because this is my lead lead, and you get hit in the left ear. 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 just figure out why it's ringing.

It makes like this popping noise, um, and I was just getting so dizzy I couldn't even do anything. I'm saying, so that's probably 10 contributed to the vertigo for sure, right? They said it wasn't officially—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, had vertigo from crystals being out of the air, went to the UPMC.

Crystals? Crystals? Yeah. Was that 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 a maneuver you do to put it back, but it wasn't positional vertigo.

It was just literally COVID that had me so messed up, so your body was so compromised from the antibiotics, the kidney infection, the second kidney infection. So you were just basically getting your health back, which is crazy that you beat a Sun Sao in that state.

Yeah, because you could—you had to be clearly compromised. There's no way you could have been 100 if you were going—if you went through that much antibiotics before that fight. But I think that goes back to my mental state where it was that I knew that I needed to get in that octagon and change this around.

I was not living a life like this. I was tired of living on a three-fight skid. I was ready to get back in there, and when, you know, like for me, like I like we talked about earlier with the TGS fights, I don't have to go in there and be angry and upset and want to rip this head off. I got there; I hate this guy. I have hatred for this guy. It’s a flip to switch.

Like when you know you have it in you, you don't—you know, and that that's been bred in me. I have it, um, 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,” you know, and Coach Mark I'd call him because we basically did—I would film my pad work and my sparring rounds and send it to Coach on WhatsApp, and then he would break everything down, do more of this, do less of that, looking good, looking fast on the, you know, your left hook counter off.

Things like that, so we did virtually, you know, camp through there. So then when he came out, so I kept working the codes to, you know, keep working your codes, keep working, you know, and make sure you're doing under nine things like that.

Then when we came to fight week, it was just so—talk me through you getting—you got COVID tested in August at the Tyson Joe. You knew that you had it. When are you free of it? Like, this is the first test that I've passed since, really? Today my doctor would test that. February?

February? Yeah, Jesus. See how excited I was. Yeah, 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 doctors, I'm not going to send out any more tests because there were 72-hour return ones, and every time you did it, you had it.

Every time I did, and this is for months. Tested my son, he didn’t have it. I mean, we were—I was—your wife didn’t get it? Um, she ended up getting it, um, but it wasn't as severe. It was a couple months ago that she got it. Um, two months ago her twin got it, and it was kind of, you know, they were sick but not like what I had, 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; there's no other way around. It's true, and when you are so tough that you push through, even though you had COVID, and you let that [ __ ] get deep into your system, there's a lesson in there for people, you know, because there's tough—tough's important.

Yeah, 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—like I've had, you probably never got it. You probably would have had it for a couple of weeks or whatever, and yeah, exactly, it wouldn't be as—it took over my body.

Then I came back and I hit pads the first time, 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 that—I remember going to sleep that night and waking up excruciating pain. Wow. And my bicep was just filled up with blood like this. I thought I tore my bicep. So I went to my doctor, and he ultrasounded it, and he thought it was a distant bicep tear, you know, deemed it that.

I'm like, I gotta call Dana and tell them like, "Hey, I'm just turning my bicep. I’m gonna then get the MRI." Get the MRI; nothing's torn; it was a—uh, then I had to go get an urgent ultrasound. I tore my vein in half, and it ripped in half. Wow. And then I had three blood clots.

So I was immediately—they started injecting me with blood thinners. I’ve been on—you know, since, yeah, this is because of COVID. 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 PNP Medical, which they work with COVID, or they work with blood clots; they have, you know, some of the devices 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 the number one silent killer in 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 a while.

So you're on blood thinners now? I just finished up my last—I was on blood pressure for almost three months. Catch new episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience for free only on Spotify. Watch back catalog JRE videos on Spotify including clips. Easily, seamlessly switch between video and audio experience on Spotify. You can listen to the JRE in the background by using other apps and can download episodes to save on data costs, all for free.

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