Essentials Inside The Story
- A UFC Houston fighter confesses he has been quietly battling addiction and alcoholism for the past five years.
- He admits he entered multiple fights barely sober, sometimes clean for only weeks at a time.
- Now approaching 100 days without drugs or alcohol, he says the goal isn’t a streak, it’s a permanent lifestyle change.
Geoff Neal has been fighting for a long time, but not all of his battles have taken place under bright lights. For years, fans looked at the wins, losses, and rankings and assumed everything else was business as usual. What they didn’t realize was how much of that stretch was spent surviving rather than living.
As UFC Houston approaches, Neal isn’t depicting the situation as a return or redemption story. It’s something quieter and heavier than that. For the first time, ‘Handz of Steel’ enters a fight without dragging years of chaos with him—and that, more than the matchup, is what makes this feel different.
Geoff Neal opens up about years lost to addiction and going sober
In an interview with Home of Fight ahead of his fight against Uros Medic, Geoff Neal admitted that his struggles began about five years ago, when he was taken to the intensive care unit with sepsis. That moment broke something open. “I fell in the hole,” he said, before detailing how drugs and alcohol gradually took over while his career continued to move forward.
The most alarming detail was not the addiction itself, but how little time he was sober throughout that period. ‘Handz of Steel’ claimed that his longest stretch was roughly two weeks, usually just before a fight. Even then, he confesses he went into fights unprepared and out of condition, relying on toughness rather than discipline.
He added, “It’s crazy I stayed in the rankings the whole time. I don’t know. It was five years of just ups and downs, just constant, constant—man. F—.” However, this cycle ultimately ended early this year. Geoff Neal committed to a modified 75-day wellness challenge, focusing on what was most important to him.
“The key for me was no drugs and no alcohol, and keeping a relatively good diet. That was the main thing,” he said. His first day in the program was also his first day sober, and he is currently approaching 100 days. What stands out is the way he approaches it. The 35-year-old refuses to count these days as a badge or milestone.
👏 Geoff Neal has been sober for nearly 100 days, which he began with a 75-day “Soft” program:
“We did more of a 75 Soft. There were certain things, like the reading, I was like ‘f*ck that’. But most of it I did. The key for me was no drugs and no alcohol, and keeping a… pic.twitter.com/pTJ1esbOrp
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) February 11, 2026
“I’m not keeping track like that because I don’t want it to be a thing where I’m counting days. I want it to be forever. I want it to be my lifestyle. I want it to be my lifestyle. I don’t want to think about how long I’ve been sober. I just want to be sober,” he added. That approach has extended beyond training. He’s distanced himself from situations that make sobriety difficult, such as leaving a bar-focused restaurant job to work somewhere more family-oriented. In fact, he also rejected fights for the same reason as well.
Neal opens up on why he doesn’t want to fight Kevin Holland
Because of his focus on stability, Geoff Neal pushed back on talk of a rematch with Kevin Holland. The fight makes sense on paper, but ‘Handz of Steel’ isn’t looking for narratives right now. After being sober, he’s being more selective about who he lets into his life, and that includes matchups that bring baggage.
In the same interview, Geoff Neal said that the issue is not the fight itself, but everything surrounding it. There is bad blood between camps, tension among trainers, and lingering issues from teammates who left Fortis MMA to train with Holland. He doesn’t want to deal with that kind of background noise while he’s trying to rebuild his mindset.
“So it’s lot of inter-gym beef. If he still wants to fight, we can do it later. But right now that’s not just something I want to do,” he said. As Neal said, the door isn’t permanently shut. It’s simply not the right moment. Right now, keeping his balance is more important than settling a past score.
If he ever fights Kevin Holland again, it will be after his life is more peaceful. Till then, his focus remains on sobriety and his upcoming UFC Houston fight against Uroš Medić.