PFL fighter Sammy Jo Luxton reflects on the terrifying moment she believed she was going to die.
Instead of preparing for her promotional debut after signing with the PFL following a blistering 18-second head kick knockout in March 2024 that earned her significant attention, Luxton was diagnosed with cancer requiring emergency surgery. This, however, turned out to be just the beginning of her medical problems.
Adding to her ordeal, all of this unfolded while Luxton was dealing with the harsh reality that her father was nearing death after suffering a massive heart attack.
“My grandma passed away unexpectedly. Six weeks later, my dad had a heart attack and was put in an induced coma,” Luxton shared. “I went down to sit bedside with him. While I was there bedside, I then needed emergency surgery myself. So I was in the ward directly below my dad`s, and the hospital had to basically put me in a wheelchair and wheel me up to his ward so I could be there when he passed.”
“Six weeks after that, I put myself back into training and I was looking forward to being in the PFL European tournament. Unbeknownst to me, there was an infection from the operation spreading through my body, which caused me to have sepsis.”
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body responds improperly to an infection. When Luxton first felt the effects of the potentially deadly condition, she attributed it to the exhaustion of a taxing training camp preparing for a fight. She soon discovered her situation was far more critical.
“I didn’t realize it initially; I thought it was just my body nearing the end of fight camp,” Luxton explained. “I’m just sore, I’m tired and I wasn’t very well. I started having tremors on the mat and then I ended up starting seizing and I was rushed to the hospital where my temperature was 42°C (107°F) so that’s basically life or death at that point.”
Under those extreme conditions due to the high fever and sepsis, Luxton was at risk of severe organ damage or even failure. She was rushed to the hospital for treatment, and the British fighter will always remember what she heard one of the nurses say as she struggled to survive.
“I got sepsis and I couldn’t walk or talk. It was scary,” Luxton recalled. “There was an apprentice nurse working on my ward and I started getting chest pains. They laid me flat and they got the [defibrillator], my heart rate was through the roof and she started going, ‘She’s 25, she’s too young to die!’”
“I can’t even explain the feeling but my whole body just loosened up because I’m like, ‘I’m about to die’ and all I could think about was what my family had gone through that year and then losing me as well? That’s awful to even think about.”
Thankfully, doctors were able to reduce her fever and get the sepsis under control, ensuring Luxton would live to see another day.
As much as she loved MMA, the now 26-year-old athlete effectively conceded that between the tragic loss of her father and the ordeal she faced with her own health, she wondered if her dream of one day becoming a champion was gone.
“I ended up coming out of it and I thought the universe told me I’m not going to fight anymore,” Luxton said. “That was the universe putting a full stop there like it wasn’t for me.”
Her ongoing grief over the loss of her father didn`t help matters, as he had been such a singular force throughout her life, particularly when it came to her fighting career.
Luxton’s father was her biggest supporter and never missed a chance to cheer on his daughter as she pursued a career in combat sports. Losing him made Luxton understand why UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov had such a hard time moving forward after he lost his father, Abdulmanap, his biggest influence in life and fighting.
“When you lose someone that close to you, that close to your fight camp, my dad took me to my first-ever training session when I was 10 [years old]. He took me to my first fight,” Luxton shared. “He was there for the rest of my career. We traveled the world together and he had big dreams for me as a fighter.”
“So when the European tournament came up, he booked his flights and hotel for the final because that’s how sure he was of me to make it. I really didn’t think I would be able to come back mentally and do it without him.”
Between losing her father and then nearly losing her own life, Luxton initially put fighting behind her. However, once she was physically capable of getting back in the gym, she at least wanted to use that as a way to rebuild herself to full health again.
Over time, Luxton started adding a little bit more to her routine, and she began feeling like her old self again. Call it a sign or just an odd coincidence, but it wasn’t long after Luxton decided she might be able to resume her career that she received an unexpected call.
“I was still in and out of the hospital through November just doing my checkups, post operation, post sepsis,” Luxton stated. “It was November when they said, ‘You’re fully healthy now.’ I think that was the point where I was coming into training and it wasn’t just for fun. I knew I was at full health and then I was hitting the pads and I was getting my speed and my cardio back and I just felt good about myself.”
“It was the very start of this year where I said I want to fight. My friends and family were like take your time, if you need a few more months, do that but I said no, honestly hand on my heart, I feel ready to go now. That’s when we got offered a fight like a week later.”
Receiving a call from the PFL gave Luxton almost the exact opposite feeling she had a year earlier when she was grieving the loss of her father and dealing with her own serious health crisis.
“That’s how I kind of twist it from the universe is putting me down to the universe is trying to bring me back up,” Luxton explained. “Because I hadn’t had much contact with PFL over the Christmas and New Year period and then it was quite random they phoned me asking ‘Do you want to fight?’ I took it with both hands.”
She attacked training with a whole new ferocity because everything was nearly stolen away from her before she had a chance to get started. Now, as she prepares for her debut at PFL Belfast on Saturday, Luxton is fighting for more than herself.
“I got pushed all the way down to the point of retirement and I’ve brought myself back into this fight and I’m grabbing it with both hands because that is what I was made to do,” she asserted. “I’m not a singer. I’m not a dancer. I’m a fighter so that’s what I’m going to do.”
“I want that world championship around my waist. I’m doing it for [my father’s] legacy now. Everybody that knows my dad, he was a proper cheapskate so he hated paying the ticket prices. He was like, ‘They keep going up and up’ and now people are like, he’s got the best seat in the house for free. So that’s what I’m going to take with me. Once I get in there, I know I’ll be able to hear him shouting what I should be doing. That is what is going to take me to the top.”
While her full focus is back on fighting, Luxton never takes for granted how lucky she is to have the ability to do this again. The ordeal of the past year has given Luxton a new perspective on life, and it’s a story she doesn’t mind sharing with the world.
“Honestly, my life in 2024 could have been a movie and I hope as soon as I become a world champion, I get those producers on the phone!” Luxton exclaimed. “I want Margot Robbie [to play me]. So she best start training.”
Murray Blackwood