It appears that COVID-19 has finally hit the UFC athlete roster. Lyman Good, who is 3-2 for the UFC, has revealed to ESPN that he was diagnosed with the coronavirus last month and has now recovered.
The athlete first indicated that something was wrong when, on April 4, he withdrew from the now-postponed UFC 249 that was set to take place on April 18. Good told the UFC the real reason that he had to withdraw — he had been diagnosed with COVID-19 — but the public was told that he had an injury because he didn’t want to “feed the fear” that has been spreading around the world.
Good says that the first sign of trouble was when, about four weeks ago, he was feeling weak ahead of a sparring session. He pushed through, but soon found that he was having trouble breathing and recognized that something was wrong with his body. He and his girlfriend Elena Bulgor went to a drive-thru testing center, the process taking about four hours. Days later, the live-in couple received their positive test results. He informed his teammates and coaches about the result.
While one of Good’s coaches also tested positive for the virus (and also recovered), all of his teammates tested negative. Good says his symptoms were bad for about a week, but he was never hospitalized. After being quarantined with his girlfriend, the two have tested negative for the virus and are able to leave quarantine. Good says he is back to training and got tested again, and now that he’s officially recovered, he says he’s trying to work with the Red Cross to donate his antibodies to help other people recover from the virus.
Good is the first active UFC fighter to publicly reveal a positive coronavirus diagnosis. Last week, Roger Gracie also shared his harrowing experience after contracting the virus.
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