One of the biggest comeback stories in recent memory has been that of Joe Riggs. The welterweight won Bellator's ‘Fight Master' show, after which he was welcomed back to the UFC for the first time since 2006 and was scheduled to face Paolo Thiago in his first fight back in the octagon.

Yet that is where everything got blown away (quite literally).

Riggs took part in an accidental shooting that involved the mishandling of a firearm and led to him sustaining injuries in the hand and leg. While it was initially believed that Riggs was cleaning a loaded firearm, he is adamant that was far from the case.

In fact, he claimed that his intention was to remove a round from the tube of the pistol but that the gun was jammed and his struggle fi the gun led to him shooting himself in the hand and leg.

"At first I didn't even realize I had shot myself in the hand, all I saw was my leg," Riggs told LastWordonSports.com. "I know about the femoral artery so I was like f***. Believe it or not, the very first thought that went through my mind was Joe Silva. The reason he was reluctant to have me back is because I have been inconsistent, I pulled out of a lot of fights, and he told me that couldn't happen anymore and then this happens. I know that's crazy, but that was my first thought. So, I got up for some reason I was running around the house like a f***ing idiot, I was naked and with every heartbeat blood was spurting out of my leg. I must've been in shock because I actually sat on the couch thinking I could get it under control.

"As I sat there the blood was coming out of my leg with enough force to hit me in my face. It finally dawned on me that I had to wake my wife up, so I get up and open the door and I say ‘Lisa wake up, I just shot myself call 911' and at that point I collapsed."









Riggs continued his gruesome retelling of the incident, focusing now on the dramatic events that followed the misfire and how he had even said goodbye to his son because he was certain he was going to die.

"I was lying on the floor, and I had lost a lot of blood. The pain was gone and I started just wanting to go to sleep. That's what happens when you're dying, you just want to sleep. My wife, Lisa, pretty much had her fist in the hole in my leg trying to get the bleeding to stop. She (Lisa) was actually trying to get in there and pinch off the artery. At this point I didn't think I was dying, I knew I was dying, I had accepted it. I asked Lisa to wake our son up so I could say goodbye to him. I was eerily calm, it was very weird. My son came out, now I feel horrible because of what he had to see. I was covered in blood, and my seven year old son sits down next to me. I gave him a hug. I told him that I was dying, but that I was proud of him and that I would always love him, and that I would always be with him.

"It was a f***ed up thing man, it was horrible. I'll tell you what man during that staying alive was hard, I wanted to go to sleep and the guys working on me kept me awake. I mean honestly at that point I had made peace with dying."

While he is expected to return to professional competition in December, Riggs still has to deal with mentally unstable people who sent him death wishes and other horrendous hate mail.

"You can't believe some of the shit people have said to me or about me. I got a letter on my door after it happened that said ‘I wish you would've shot yourself in the head and your son would've saw that' and on the letter was a picture they had made of me getting shot with a gun. What f***ing kind of a person would do that, you know?"

Photos courtesy of TMZ.com

Transcription taken from LastWordonSports.com