Dominick Reyes considers himself extremely lucky to be alive after surviving a life-threatening medical condition.
The former Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight title challenger was slated to face City Kickboxing product Carlos Ulberg on March 30 but later withdrew from the matchup.
Reyes (12-4) has now revealed that a massage session to reduce pain in his calf led to the revelation that he was suffering from deep-vein thrombosis blood clots in his leg.
“God puts us through some trials, and I’m having another hard go right now,” Reyes told MiddleEasy. “Me and Carlos were slated to fight Jan. 20. He pulled out, I don’t know why. It’s an injury, obviously, but he’s not going to say what his injury is. And then a week later, I ended up getting blood clots. Deep vein thrombosis. So yeah, I’m out for a minute.”
The California native has been prescribed blood thinners and a break from all strenuous activity for the next three months. While the entire situation is self-admittedly frustrating and upsetting for him, Reyes is happy to be alive and well.
“I’m lucky to be alive right now; that’s always nice,” Reyes said. “We caught it early, so it didn’t become a pulmonary embolism, and thank God for that. Which is kind of crazy because I got a massage. My leg was hurting, and I thought I pulled a muscle in my calf, so I got a massage, and that’s the worst thing you can ever do. I’m lucky I didn’t die on that massage table right there.”
Reyes, 34, is currently on a four-fight losing skid and has been out of action since November 2022. Following a controversial unanimous decision loss to then-light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, Reyes has recorded three losses all by way of finish against the likes of Jan Blachowicz, Jiri Prochazka and Ryan Spann.
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