Despite array of injuries, Ryan Hall 'never lost hope' that he'd make UFC return

Ryan Hall has struggled to get healthy, but things are finally looking up.

It’s been almost three years since Hall (9-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) last competed when he defeated Darrick Minner in December 2021. Since then, it’s been surgery after surgery after surgery for the jiu-jitsu ace.

“Basically, the most serious string of unfortunate health stuff that I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Hall told BJPenn.com. “I’ve had 21 general anesthesia surgeries since that fight. Sorry, 19, there were two prior. It’s just been kind of a bit of a journey. I got fallen on, tore my ACL, had to fix a plantar plate that was torn. Got fallen on again, and had to have a tightrope surgery, the one that Pat Mahomes and a couple of other people have had.

“The ACL got infected and had to have a couple of emergency septic arthritis. The tight rope, I was actually allergic to the hardware that they put in me somehow, so had to have that redone. It’s been interesting, but finally on the back end of it.”

Despite the health struggles, Hall never gave up on competing again. He’s targeting a return in the first half of 2025.

“Right before I fought Ilia Topuria in 2021, I got fallen on then I went 15 years completely bulletproof,” Hall said. “I ended up getting fallen on and tore my hip right prior to that fight pretty badly, and I didn’t really appreciate how badly it affected my ability to move and there was a lot of follow-on body issues from that. At that point, it was 17 years of combat sports. You spend all that time competing and training. … The big one recently was I had a torn shoulder. I had a 270 re-tear in my labrum. I tore my rotator cuff, big-old cyst in my shoulder that was causing weird nerve stuff, too.

“Getting that all fixed, as well, has been huge. It’s been interesting because more than half of the surgeries I’ve had were actually, ‘Oops, we screwed that one up, sorry, let’s run it back.’ I had six elbow surgeries and five knee surgeries. As a patient, you don’t have the ability to vet doctors and medical staff. … There was a period of time when I was in pretty substantial daily pain for a while, but being on the back side of that, I never lost hope that I’d have the opportunity to be back.”

Hall’s lone octagon loss came to current UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria. Being forced on the sidelines has been especially frustrating for the 39-year-old, since he used to struggle to get fights when he was active.

“I had long stretches of time where no one would fight me,” Hall said. “This is my third separate, two-plus year period during my time in the UFC with no fights. This one was on me so to speak because of injuries, but the other two, nobody would fight. Fight after fight, I’d get declined or fight after fight would fall through. Turns out, that your only loss is under really difficult circumstances.

“I had a bunch of injuries going into that fight, and he’s a great fighter anyway. The only fight you lost is to the current champ. Coming off of that, being able to get back in and beat a tough guy in Darrick Minner. I had actually just signed on to fight Pat Sabatini and that’s when I tore my ACL. …That was the beginning of this saga. It is frustrating because you sit and go what could be or what could have been.”