It’s do or die for 41-year old Jason Reinhardt (20-1), when he steps into the octagon to meet Chinese sensation Tiequan Zhang (17-1) in a featherweight matchup for the upcoming UFC 127 event.
Reinhardt who has one fight under his belt in the UFC already, a loss to Joe Lauzon back in November 2007 at UFC 78, the only loss of his career in fact, wants to make the UFC his permanent home and mixed martial arts his full time job by defeating Zhang on Feb. 26.
The husband, and father of one, has been paying the bills by working as a door-to-door insurance salesman, has only fought twice since his UFC debut, once in 2007 and once in 2008. So as much as he’s prepared to meet the Chinese fighter in the opening bout of UFC 127, ‘ring rust’ may prove to be a bigger factor.
“I hate it. I don’t want to sell life insurance door-to-door any more so I have to win this fight,” he said. “This is my only way out, it’s do or die with this fight. I’m going to fight until the end in that cage. This is my only shot…If he gassed out in that fight against Danny Boy Downes, I hate to see what he’s going to do against me. Because the pace that I set is 10 times Danny Boy’s. So I hope he’s done his cardio, because I have. And if he hasn’t, it’s too late. It’s all about being happy. I mean, how happy can you be knocking on doors selling life insurance, man?”
HT: UFC.com