I don’t go to meetings to learn how to not drink. I go there to learn how to live a life. – Court McGee
SALT LAKE CITY — MMA veteran Court McGee’s sobriety isn’t a peripheral detail of his life.
It is central to who he is inside and outside the cage.
“My whole life revolves around recovery,” said the Provo father of two who will be the only local fighter competing when the UFC makes its first stop in Utah on Aug. 6.
“The stigma surrounding addiction is horrible,” he said of why he speaks often and honestly about his struggle with alcohol and drug addiction. “I don’t go to meetings to learn how to not drink. I go there to learn how to live a life.”
The 31-year-old native of Ogden earned his place in the UFC in 2010 when he won the reality show — The Ultimate Fighter 11. When he won the finale fight, he dedicated his victory to those battling addiction in an emotional post-fight speech.
In the decade since McGee made the decision to live sober, he said he’s found purpose and fulfillment in embracing what is a daily struggle.
“3,759 days,” he said of how long he’s been sober. Being open about it “kept me accountable, kept me safe, and then it became a way of life.”
He said that sobriety, which he found after nearly dying due to a drug overdose, is never simple and it’s never finished. The universe in which he’s made his living can make living sober both easier (health and fitness) and more difficult (the post-fight parties and club scenes that often accompany events).
“I’ve signed autographs in bars, but if I don’t have a reason to be there that is to better provide for my family, then I won’t go,” he said.
Interestingly, his sponsors have been very supportive of his efforts to be an advocate for sobriety.
He’s dealt with 11 surgeries without narcotics, and he said when he steps in the ring, he fights for those struggling just like he did.
“That’s who I fight for,” he said. “The guy struggling with addiction.”
He said sobriety has “connected me to a higher power” and helped him find a spiritual connection that sustains him outside of the sport to which he’s dedicated his life.
McGee will take on Dominique Steele in the UFC’s Utah debut on Aug. 6. He said he knows how lucky he is to be closing in on a decade as a professional MMA fighter.
"I'm coming up on 10 years," he said. "It's incredible. It's crazy."
The headline bout will feature 22-year-old Yair Rodriguez (8-1) and Alex Caceres (12-8).
Rodriguez found his way into the UFC when the organization held a tryout in Mexico City in January of 2013. Rodriguez went on to win The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America, and now lives in Chicago, Illinois. He’s on a six-fight win streak, the most recent of which was in April.
Salt Lake City’s event will be his first has a headliner, but he said it makes no difference to him where he fights on the card, only who he fights.
“(Caceres) is a pretty good fighter,” he said smiling. “He’s a good striker, a lefty, sneaky, a Jujitsu trained and very quick and flexible,” he said, referencing Caceres speed. “We’re kind of the same.”
Rodriguez said his parents were initially disappointed when he told them he wanted to be an MMA fighter.
“Then they saw me fighting, and they said, ‘We’ll support you’,” he said. “This is what I wanted. I don’t want to be anything else.”
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