Issue 156

July 2017

Emotions from a last-minute fight cancellation.

I saw Ian Entwistle on the Thursday night before UFC London when he was cutting weight and asked if he was alright. He said he was – he was having a break from the sauna. I shook his hand and gave him a little hug. He said he had 4lb to go. I was the same. He looked like he was struggling, but not majorly. I got on with my weight cut, did about 20 minutes in a hot bath and I was more or less done. 

I kept looking over at the weigh in. The doctors said he was fine. It was on. A few hours after, he looked fresh. He came up to me and said sorry because he missed weight. I said: “It’s part of the game. I’ve missed weight in the past, but make sure you turn up tomorrow.” I must have had some feeling inside that he wouldn’t.

I was confident I was going to get a dominant, first-round shutout. Not only were we confident for the win, we were confident for the $50K purse.

We were leaving for the venue at 2pm, and at 12pm we had the news. My coach, Chris Rees called me and said to come to the room. He didn’t say anything else. There was no hint of what was to come. 

I said goodbye to my girlfriend and my cousin, gave them all a hug and said: “Whatever happens tonight, happens. I’m still happy representing my friends and family and Wales.” I was getting all emotional. When I got back to the hotel, my manager, Brian Butler from SuckerPunch Entertainment, was sitting in my room and he would not be there for any other reason than to tell me the news. I knew. 

I took my UFC hat and threw it across the room, said a few swear words, cried, then had a chat with Chris about how to get through it very quickly. It just absolutely sucked. I was upset more because, even though I know it’s my job, I didn’t have a birthday this year because I had to diet. I didn’t have food and my family had a Chinese while I sat there and ate crap. 

My girlfriend wanted to go away. After the fight, we were going to go to America for a road trip but, thanks to Ian Entwistle, that was put on hold. I was really upset. Ask my training partners – even two or three weeks after I wasn’t myself. It was like I’d lost the fight. 

I stayed for the fights. I’ve never watched a UFC card before. My first UFC was my first fight in Belfast. I was in the front row and I thought it was sick. The show was amazing, the fights were amazing, but I didn’t want to be there. I wanted to be in the cage, fighting. I only went for one reason: to be involved in Brad Pickett’s career. The one thing I wanted was taken away from me.

The UFC has been absolutely brilliant to me. It was a bit of a kick in the teeth. In my head, I was expecting my show, my win, my Reebok money and $50K, so the money I got left with wasn’t the best. It was fair, so I’m not going to be that guy who complains. I didn’t even fight, so I’m lucky I got paid at all.

I went straight back into camp. I wanted to fight in Stockholm and then Scotland. Scotland is what they said next, so I’ll see how that fight goes then maybe call out for a Vegas card or something like that. Then I should potentially have enough cash to take my girlfriend on holiday. She costs me a lot of money, so I need to start winning these $50Ks!