Geoff Neal plans to ‘take some time away’ to deal with serious health issues after suffering second straight loss

Geoff Neal needs some answers.

After starting off his UFC career with five straight wins including four by knockout or submission, the 30-year-old former Contender Series winner has now suffered back-to-back losses in his career. The latest setback came at UFC Vegas 26 where Neal was outpointed by Neil Magny in a three-round fight.

While it wasn’t a bad performance by any means in what was ultimately a close fight, Neal admitted afterwards that his body has never quite felt right after he went through a harrowing near death experience in 2020.

Neal previously recounted his hospitalization, which involved putting him on dialysis after his body went septic from an illness that baffled doctors. In fact, Neal never received an accurate diagnosis on what actually happened to him but it appears his body never fully recovered.

“Well there goes another one,” Neal wrote in a post fight statement on Instagram. “Felt really good in the first round and the second one was close. Even in defeat I’m still proud of this one as well. It was another honor to step in there with another crafty veteran in Neil Magny.

“I’m probably gonna take some time away and take care of my health a little bit. My body hasn’t been right since I got sepsis last year. I’ve been dealing with off and on sickness and severe lack of energy since then.”

According to Neal, he actually fell ill again just a matter of days before the fight against Magny took place and he nearly pulled out of the event.

Instead of dropping out, Neal required even more from his body after he suffered through a brutal weight cut to get down to the welterweight limit for the fight.

“I almost pulled out of this fight last week because I was vomiting/diarrhea for three days and after having to rehydrate and replenish what my body lost I found myself sitting at 208 pounds exactly one week before weigh-ins,” Neal revealed.

“But I got issues, so I said f*ck it and cut 37 pounds in a week anyway. Probably a super dangerous/stupid decision, but nothing great ever gets done trying to play it safe.”

It appears Neal will take the necessary time to get his medical issues sorted before booking another fight in the UFC as he looks to return to the form that had many believing he could be a future title contender.

More than anything, Neal just wants to get his health back to 100 percent so he can prove himself once again while performing at the best of his abilities.

“Gonna go on my FIRST real vacation to Hawaii next week, come back, get some blood test done to figure out what’s going on with my body and I PROMISE you I will be back with a vengeance,” Neal said.

“Thanks to all my coaches and teammates who helped my through this camp. And thanks again to Neil Magny. That was a solid veteran performance.”