Bryan Battle believes his days with the UFC aren’t over, they’re just on pause for the moment. Battle was cut from the promotion last week after missing weight for the second straight time. The Ultimate Fighter 29 winner came in four pounds over for his welterweight fight against Randy Brown at UFC 310, and then […]
Bryan Battle believes his days with the UFC aren’t over, they’re just on pause for the moment.
Battle was cut from the promotion last week after missing weight for the second straight time. The Ultimate Fighter 29 winner came in four pounds over for his welterweight fight against Randy Brown at UFC 310, and then four pounds over for what was supposed to be his middleweight debut against Nursulton Ruziboev at UFC 319. Their fight would end up being cancelled.
“I’m getting older, and I think my body just can’t do the things it used to do,” Battle told Ariel Helwani following the second weight miss. “I thought it was going to be a piece of cake, a walk in the park. When you’re cutting weight and things go south … once things start going downhill, it’s hard to recover from it.”
Battle was cut by the promotion soon after that interview, but quickly picked up a fight with Dirty Boxing Championship (DBX) for their third card on August 29th. Battle takes on Derik Freitas, who is 1-7 over his last eight fights. As soft of a landing as that is, “The Butcher” still has a UFC return on his mind.
“I definitely thought it was something that could happen, and it was justified,” Battle told MMA Fighting of his release. “It’s not something that I’m going to bitch and moan about at all. But I’m not going to lie, I did think that they weren’t going to cut me. I didn’t think that was going to happen, but that’s what happened. That’s a result of my own actions.”
“One of the things I’m most excited about this opportunity is it gives me a chance to let my actions do the talking — show my remorse, show that I’m better with my actions. One of my favorite things one of my coaches used to say was, ‘I hear better with my eyes,’ and so I’m just really looking forward to going out there, making weight, whooping ass. I don’t got to say it, y’all can see it.”
Battle went 7-1-1 in the UFC with three performance bonuses. He had a stand-out win at UFC Paris last year when he beat local Kevin Jousset via KO and then mercilessly trolled the French crowd. But his next fight was the lackluster UFC 310 weight miss, and then he caused his UFC 319 fight to be cancelled.
“Everyone knows I’m f–king nice with it when it comes to fighting,” Battle said. “Now it’s just time to clean up all the other things and show that I can be a professional … There’s people asking about me in different places, but I will say the end goal … is to get back to the UFC and f–king show out.”
“But one thing at a time. I gotta start with making weight this Thursday, winning this fight on Friday, and then I can worry about the next step after that.”
Category: General Sports
