Jared ‘Flash’ Gordon sees himself as a ‘more well-rounded’ fighter than Nasrat Haqparast ahead of their Lightweight bout at UFC Saudi Arabia.
The promotion will head to the Kingdom Arena, Riyadh with a card set to feature many familiar faces and will see top Middleweight contender Robert Whittaker taking on the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev.
Ahead of his clash against Haqparast, Gordon spoke to MiddleEasy MMA and discussed his reasons as to why he decided to moved over to Dubai weeks out from the bout. He said:
“So my friend Ozzy, who is a long time training partner of mine, since I'm like 21, is the head coach at a gym here and being that I'm fighting in Saudi Arabia, which is basically in this time zone, I found it beneficial for me to come out, acclimate to the eight hour time change because I live in south Florida, so it's an eight hour time change from here to Dubai or from home to Dubai. But it's like 7 hours from Saudi Arabia.
“So, I came out here acclimate because I know what jet lag is like, and it's a real thing when you're trying to cut weight for a fight and recover and you need to sleep, but you can't sleep. So, it's a whole thing. I don't want to cut any corners.”
Although having already been training out there for week, Gordon expressed his relief at doing so, admitting that he has only become accustomed to the heat and the new time zone in recent days.
“I mean, I've been here for three weeks tomorrow and I mean I really I started good like sleeping schedule like the beginning of this past week. So you have to get here early. If you don't, you'll have huge affects on recovery and, you know, cutting what you're in a calorie deficit, trying to cut weight, can't catch up you know.”
Previewing his upcoming bout, Gordon believes Haqparast will look to keep the bout on its feet but sees himself, respectfully, as being the better all round competitor and thinks that it will be evident as the bout plays out.
“I think there's no secret he's wants to keep it standing and he's more of a boxer than he is anything, or use his hands more than he does anything. He throws kicks obviously and he has decent wrestling defense and is a good fighter man, the kid been in the UFC for a while. I'm not taking anything from him, I just think I'm a more well-rounded fighter. I know my ground game is better than him, and when I take him down, it's going to show.”
Gordon comes into he contest on the back of an impressive first round stoppage against Mark Madsen at UFC 296. Looking back on the bout, ‘Flash’ credited his team with preparing him in the best way possible for the tough wrestler, Madsen.
“Yeah, obviously Madsen was a great win. Silver medallist, Olympic Greco wrestler and yeah, I mean, I had the training partners to work with. My friend Jordan Oliver, who was an Olympic alternate for American, wrestled at Oklahoma State University.”
“John Smith was his head coach. He went to the Olympic training. He did Greco done it all and I have the coaching, to show me this is what you got to do. The guys are Greco guys, this and that and yeah, I mean, I was able to get the job done and here I am now. I'm actually fighting his teammate, they train together and Firas Zahabi will be cornering against me for a second time. So, you know, interesting, interesting dynamic.”
Watch the full interview with MiddleEasy, below:
