Matt Mitrione details immense pain he's endured to fight Fedor Emelianenko at 'Bellator: NYC'

The kidney stones that kept heavyweight Matt Mitrione from fighting Fedor Emelianenko at last month’s Bellator 172 weren’t the last of his problems – not by a long shot.

Mitrione (11-5 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) says he’s perfectly healthy now and ready to fight Emelianenko at “Bellator NYC” on June 24 at Madison Square Garden in New York. But his road to recovery was a painful one.

“First of all, I feel fantastic,” Mitrione said today during a press conference for the pay-per-view card, recalling the turn of events that led to the cancellation of his first fight with Emelianenko. “Fedor, thank you for accepting the fight again. I really appreciate it. It’s a massive opportunity, so I’m really thankful for that. That’s first.

“Kidney stones, man. It just happened. I don’t know where it came from. I don’t know why it (happened). I passed a couple of them a few times before, and this one, when they finally called the fight (off), they said, ‘Ok, we need to get a CAT scan and see what’s really going on here.’ The stone had still not passed; it was still in my tract somewhere. And we finally got that one to pass, and in the CAT scan they thought they found six or seven stones in my right kidney, and none in my left.”

Mitrione eventually passed the kidney stone while in the airport waiting for his flight home. He immediately scheduled an appointment with a specialist. He found out the issue was much more serious than originally anticipated.

“On Wednesday I was in a doctor’s office, Amy Krambeck, who’s one of the best kidney stone doctors on the planet, and she’s out of Indianapolis, where I live,” Mitrione said. “She went in to my body through my pee hole and found 24 kidney stones, and they removed them all. It was a miserable experience, and as a memorable thing for me, she left a 26-centimeter stent that I got to pull out four days later.”

As you might imagine, that was just as miserable an experience. Mitrione survived, but could it happen again?

The veteran heavyweight isn’t quite sure the cause of his kidney stones, so he can’t say for certain whether the issue will come up again. All he knows is that he’s feeling a lot better than he did.

“We don’t know what caused them,” Mitrione said. “Initially, she said it was serial dehydration. But I don’t cut weight, so I don’t know what that would have been. Probably from my years when I was younger, hanging out, partying and drinking, going to practice still drunk or hungover, and then drinking again, when I was way too young.

“Probably just being irresponsible, and not having the cleanest diet. But obviously, having 24 stones, they’ve been there for a long time. I was just lucky enough not to pass them at the worst time ever in the history of ever, which this one did, and that’s what happened. But I feel great, other than that.”

Considering all he’d been through to get to that moment, it was a funny statement, and certainly cringe inducing for anyone who’s dealt with kidney stones.

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