Richard Shore has detailed the background of his recent cancer diagnosis in an exclusive interview with Combat Sports UK.
Following the win over Makwan Amirkhani at UFC 286, Jack Shore announced in his post-fight interview that his father, Richard, was suffering with cancer and had undergone chemotherapy.
The Welshman kept this away from the public while ‘Tank’s’ camp for UFC 286.
Speaking to Ben Thomas of Combat Sports UK, Shore said: “It was overwhelming. A lot of people say ‘why haven’t you mentioned it?’. I’m in the public eye a lot but my private life is my private life, you very rarely see my wife and my daughter involved in stuff that I post.
“When I had the diagnosis, it was tough enough for the family. You see it so often on Facebook [when] people broadcast bad news, [but] I was one of these [that sees it as]: well we’ve been dealt with a bad hand, you’ve gotta deal [with it].
“It’s life, life throws sh*t at us, so you can either roll over and die or you can, you know, stand up, look it straight in the eye and go ‘well let’s go’. So, we’re in the middle of the ‘let’s go’ period.
“The chemotherapy made me really ill but, again, the amount of people that were aware I was going through that was probably my friends, family, and the team. It’s not something we broadcast, in fairness to the team they didn’t go putting it all over social media and speaking about it.”
Richard Shore on Jack Shore’s Speech
Shore coached his son to a submission victory over Makwan Amirkhani in London who, after the fight, broke the news of his father’s diagnosis while speaking to Daniel Cormier.
Looking back on Jack’s speech, Richard said: “When Jack said what he said [to DC], it upset me a little bit because there’s been an overwhelming pressure leading into this fight [against Amirkhani]. And again, when we talk about the pressure on Jack I think that was a massive factor. I was not well, there was always that chance I could take a turn for the worst and not be in the corner due to the treatment.”
Richard Shore Full Exclusive Interview
You can watch the full interview with Richard Shore below:
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