Top ranked UFC bantamweight Jimmie Rivera spoke to Bloody Elbow about his headlining fight with Marlon Moraes at UFC Utica.
This weekend, at UFC Utica, Jimmie Rivera — owner of one of the most impressive winning streaks in all of MMA (20 victories in pro competition) — will do something he has never done in his UFC career: close the show. The 21-1 bantamweight gets his first UFC main event on Saturday opposite another first-time-headliner, Marlon Moraes (20-5-1).
The match-up, which features the promotion’s 4th and 5th ranked bantamweights, comes after an unusually public period of attempted match-making on the parts of many of the division’s top fighters.
Since T.J. Dillashaw dethroned Cody Garbrandt at UFC 217 last November, the division’s heaviest hitters have been sparring online and revealing who, when, and where they want to fight (as well as sharing their ire when this doesn’t come to fruition).
One of the most vocal bantamweights during this period has been the ‘Magic’ man Moraes who in January, after dispatching of Aljamain Sterling with a brutal KO, spoke up about Rivera. Moraes claimed he had signed multiple bout agreements to fight Rivera. The Brazilian asked Rivera to choose which day he wants to get beat, before finishing with a misogynistic slur.
Moraes’ manager, the controversial Ali Abdelaziz, also got in on the act. He taunted Rivera on twitter, telling him he had an ‘ass whipping coming’ (h/t reddit).
Prior to this time Rivera was slated to face former champion Dominick Cruz. However a potential match-up with “the Dominator” fell through due to injury. A match opposite John Lineker also fell through leaving the door open for Rivera vs. Moraes in upstate New York.
After all the back and forth, Rivera is anxious to actually fight. “It feels good,” he told Bloody Elbow. “You never know what’s going to happen, but it feels good that this fight is finally happening. It feels good to have an opponent and it will feel good to be back in there. Obviously, I would rather my opponent was T.J. Dillashaw, for the belt, but this should seal a number one contender spot.”
When asked if the comments from Moraes and Abdelaziz had made him even more eager to get the hostilities under way, Rivera answered “Absolutely.”
“I think it just really comes down to how his manager was disrespectful and how this guy called me out,” he added. “I kind of just take that and use that as fuel to get me ready for my fight. But it helps, it definitely helps to have stuff like that.”
Rivera said that in his previous fight, a unanimous decision over Thomas Almeida, the lack of bad blood made mental preparation a little more difficult.
“With the Almeida fight, he was very humble and very nice, so I had to really focus on getting that fuel and really pushing myself to get ready for that fight. This fight, I want it more and I have that fuel. That’s why it’s always great to have someone who talks s**t. When different people talk about me it only fuels up my gas tank to make me work even harder in the gym.”
Rivera claimed that previous fights with Iuri Alcantara and Pedro Munhoz were all aided by those opponents’ attempts to get under his skin.
“When I fought Pedro Munhoz, he got in my face at weigh-ins and then after he was like, ‘Oh man I was just trying to amp it up.’ And I was like, ‘You don’t have to act like that. We’re going to f**k each other up in the cage tomorrow — you don’t have to do that.’ And that’s what we did. We beat the s**t out of each other the next day. You don’t have to jump in my face at weigh-ins or anything like that.”
Despite not having a personal dislike for Almeida, Rivera was able to impress against an opponent who was once considered the next big thing at 135 lbs. Although, Rivera has found faults in the performance.
“I’m definitely a perfectionist,” he prefaced. “[Against Almeida] I just went in for the kill and I tried to knock him out. I didn’t try and pick him apart so I was a little upset that I did that … I didn’t wear him down, minute-by-minute, I was really trying to get a finish. I wanted the big finish to secure that title shot. So I’ve kind of learned from it and realized you’re not always going to get the finish. You can try over three five-minute rounds and you’re still not going to get it. You just have to take your time to pick someone apart and the finish will come.”
Against Moraes this Saturday night, Rivera said he won’t force a finish, but he’s very confident in being able to beat an opponent who, to him, doesn’t possess many notable attributes.
“I think Marlon, when it comes down to it, I think he’s tough and that’s it,” deadpanned Rivera. “I don’t believe, at all, that he is better than me at any aspect of MMA.”
Rivera is also confident that beating Moraes will translate into a title shot against the winner of Dillashaw vs. Garbrandt (who are scheduled to fight at UFC 227 in August). Although, Rivera is a little peeved at having to beat Moraes to earn a shot. He believes his resume is deserving of a title fight now and that certain kinds of people recognize this immediately.
“I feel like MMA fans know who I am and that I deserve a title shot, but the casual fan doesn’t,” opined Rivera. “The casual fans really don’t know what MMA is. When I meet an MMA fan, they come up to me and say, ‘When are you getting a f—king title shot?’ I go, ‘I don’t know man, that’s not up to me. That’s up to the UFC.’ But when you hear a casual fan, they just want to see a knockout or some cool submission. When it comes to a sport, a professional sport, not every fight is going to be a knockout. There’s going to be decisions. MMA fans understand it. Casual fans don’t. And if you’re having the organization ran for casual fans, it sucks for someone that is professional, like myself, who is not always going to get a finish.”
You can see if Rivera can delight ‘casuals’ with a stoppage over Moraes, or entertain others with another solid decision victory this Saturday night. UFC Fight Night: Rivera vs. Moraes airs at 10PM ET on FS1 live from the Adirondack Bank Center in Utica, NY.