Foster rushed to ambulance minutes after earning UFC contract on Contender Series

Greg Foster’s path to the UFC roster came with an immediate detour to the emergency room. The 9-1 prospect earned his contract on the season finale of Dana White’s Contender Series with a unanimous decision victory over Jason Asher, but was rushed into a waiting ambulance before he could join his fellow contract winners in celebrating at the Meta APEX.

Foster was reluctant to go, by his own admission. “The doctors were getting mad at me in the back,” he told MMA Fighting. “I was trying not to go to the hospital, but they wouldn’t do it.”

The surreal nature of the moment has yet to fully sink in for the new UFC signee. “I’ve got to sit down, I’ve got to let life get a little less crazy and just really take it all in,” Foster said. “It’s still surreal to just understand how much work and time we’ve put in this, and now we’re in the door.”

Foster fought the biggest bout of his professional career carrying significant personal weight. Shortly before receiving the call for the Contender Series, his mother was involved in a serious car accident. She sustained a fractured neck, fractured pelvis, eight broken ribs, and a collapsed lung, and spent two weeks in the ICU before moving into rehabilitation.

“We didn’t really know if she was going to make it,” Foster said. “It was just f*cked that I had to leave her and go back and train, not knowing if I was going to fight or not because of this opportunity that may or may not happen. It was tough to see your mom in a hospital bed and have to leave her.”

His win over Asher meant that, for a period, both Fosters were hospitalised on the same night — one recovering from surgery, the other being evaluated after three hard rounds in the octagon.

Despite everything, Foster spoke with clear affection and admiration for his mother’s resilience. “She’s bulletproof. She’s got a great mentality. She’s strong as shit. People see my mom and she’s a nice sweet little, old lady, but she’s pretty hood and she’s gangster and she’s got a great attitude.”

Foster was one of four fighters to earn a UFC contract on the Contender Series finale, though he was the only one whose celebration was cut short by medical staff.