Issue 183

October 2019

After years spent in prison, the Denver middleweight’s rise through the UFC ranks is one of the sport’s most inspiring stories.

There are levels to this and you keep leveling up. You fought through some adversity in your scrap with the very dangerous Antonio Carlos Jr at UFC Fight Night 152. How great did it feel to battle back against him?

It’s good. I had to endure. I had to survive the first round. He got on my back and I got in a bad position right where he wanted me and it was early. I had to be very technical and keep my composure. After that first round was over I felt him break. It was just his body language. If you are so good at something and it works on everyone and then all of a sudden it doesn’t work, it gets to you mentally. I felt him break and then I put that pace on him that I put on all these guys. He slowed down and I sped up. I pulled out the victory. I tried to get the finish. You can tell he is a veteran in there. He stayed away from the big strikes. I am happy with the outcome but I feel like there is a lot of room for improvement. I want to get these big finishes. I want to be recognized by the UFC as their next big guy.

After the Contender Series, you had the Cezar Ferreira fight at UFC Fight Night 140. They threw you pretty far in the deep end right out of the gate. To come away with two wins against those guys, that has to be a huge confi dence boost for you.

Absolutely. I feel like I am on the fast track. The “UFC’s Most Wanted” is back. My coaches and my team are getting my skillset around so well. My management, Jason House, is getting me amazing fights and keeping me on the fast track. God has put all of these great people in my life. I will never forget how coach and my whole team showed up for my court hearing. I basically beat the case. I was looking at 4-6 years after doing a bunch of time.

That could have really derailed my career. I feel like this has all happened for a reason and I feel like I am on this path and it's leading me up to this point. I want to keep putting on a big show for the fans inside the Octagon.

When you were incarcerated in various foreign countries around the world, you vocalized for a long time about becoming a UFC champ. Now you are possibly on that path. Do you feel like you were speaking that into existence?

Yeah Absolutely. Not many guys besides Conor (McGregor) have broken into the top ten in three fights in the UFC. I always knew my skill level was high. The first fight I was super nervous. I will continue to make adjustments and catch these guys with big shots and start putting guys away. Everyone is a killer at this level. I visualized it so many times in my head, even when I was locked up. Just to see it become a real thing right in front of me, it’s pretty surreal and it’s an awesome feeling. I have envisioned it thousands and thousands of times. It is really cool to see it happening how I saw it.

The first time you were introduced to the UFC audience you competed on season two of Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series. You had one fight against Justin Sumter and finished him with some hellacious elbows. What were your thoughts on competing on the series?

It was really cool. At first I was little bummed that I had to go through the Contenders Series because I just came off a big knockout win for the LFA belt. It was my second knockout in a row. You are putting it all on the line again on the show, against a tough guy. It was a unique experience with me being used to fighting in huge arenas and then all of a sudden you walk out on the show and five people are clapping.

It’s really quiet and eerie. It almost felt like a sparring round. It was crazy they put us in the small room. It was July in Vegas. It was over 100 degrees in this room. It was so hot.

We were sitting there sweating. But it was great because I got to fight right in front of my bosses – Dana, Mick and Sean, everyone was there.

I got to showcase my skills in front of my bosses and stamp my name in their brains so they know who I am now. I wanted to impress myself, which I did. They kind of already know who they are going to sign but then when you get a huge performance like I did, I was very certain that I would get the contract and I did.

You have fought through more in your personal life than you ever will in the cage. What could you possibly face in the Octagon that would even come close to what you’ve fought through in a situation like you faced in that jail cell in Jamaica Queens?

I do believe I have one of the most mentally strong minds in the UFC just because of the stuff I’ve been through. Where I was if you get in a fight you are lucky if a guard comes by and breaks it up. Now I get to train and compete in a sport I love where when worst comes to worst the referee will pull the other guy off you. It just gives me confidence in there. It just kind of numbs it out, the whole fear and nervousness and all of that. I definitely got super nervous at my debut in Argentina just because I was watching the UFC my entire life and now I was there fighting a top 20 guy. It was mostly the fear of the unknown and the fact that it was something I hyped up in my head my entire life. Once I got that out I felt very calm. In my second fight I was co-main event and I felt amazing. That’s why I believe everything in my life has prepared me for the path I’m on and where I am going.

You competed in combat situations in Lucha Canaria, the wrestling club in the Spanish prison. What was the most memorable moment from those battles?

Just training with the boys and working with my coaches. It was such a great experience. I was sparring with the Spanish K-1 Champions in there. My striking was not good. He basically beat my ass. His wrestling was not good and he wanted to do MMA. I offered to help him with wrestling if he helped me with the striking. We just trained together. They helped me where I was weak and I helped them where they were weak. Those are the kind of things that stood out. When I got transferred to the north of Spain they let me start my own MMA program. The Lucha Canaria, the kickboxing and building my own MMA classes are moments that stand out.

What was the lowest moment for you through all of your legal issues, your time in prison and your time on the run as a fugitive? Was there a moment where you wondered what on earth you were doing?

Yeah there were many moments like that but I think one of the lowest was when I was in Tenerife. I was nine or ten months in there. I had no court or hearing lined up. The lawyers knew nothing. I was in this limbo land, which was a weird place to be. It was in the middle of summer. We were in our cells and they shut the water off halfway through the day for four hours. We had no money to get water, so we had no water. The bugs, the ants, the cockroaches, kept crawling all over us. You would clean and clean and clean. You were literally dripping in sweat. There was no AC, no fan. You were sitting there sweating. We had a little water in a bucket. We didn’t have toilet paper. We used notebook paper. I remember laying there sweating, with bugs crawling all over me. There was nothing I could do about it. That was a time when I wondered what the hell was going on. I was locked in this cell with no water and I remember that I was in a moment of rock bottom to the fullest.

Even in the depths of despair, you were still talking about becoming a UFC champion by speaking it into existence and putting it out there in the universe. Did the people around you think you were crazy?

Absolutely. I still remember people looking at me like I was crazy. People were telling me I was too old. One of the main messages to my fans, my followers and supporters is that you can be rock bottom in a foreign country in a prison cell with all of the odds against you and you can come out and be the best in the world at the highest level of something. Just follow your dreams.

I love giving that message out and inspiring people. Even when I think of my own story it still inspires me. I had to believe when no one believed in me and follow my God-given destiny.