LAS VEGAS — If Patrick Cummins has any regrets about letting the world know the secrets of the wrestling room, he’s not letting on.
“That’s the business,” Cummins (4-0) said during Wednesday’s UFC 170 open workouts at Mandalay Bay. “We need to come out here and we’re getting in a fight. That’s about as raw as it gets.”
Cummins first made news last week when he got signed to the UFC to meet Cormer as a late replacement for Rashad Evans in the UFC 170 co-main event. Then he poured fuel on a fire by stating he made Cormier cry after a wrestling training session leading up to the 2004 Olympics.
But despite the brushback, the 4-0 light heavyweight isn’t taking back his words.
“I don’t know what the wrestling code is,” Cummins said. “[Cormier] seems to have all these ideas I don’t know anything about.
“The wrestling community hasn’t had a big outcry on the wrestling code thing,” he continued. “I think it was him backpedaling a little bit. I don’t know what to say, dude.”
You couldn’t blame Cummins if he felt a little overwhelmed by his circumstances. After all, the former NCAA wrestling All-American went from being a barista at a Dana Point, Calif. coffee shop last week to a pay-per-view co-main eventer this week.
Cummins feels, though, that taking the Cormier fight on short notice will play in his favor.
“Overthinking a situation is a big deal, especially in this game,” Cummins said. “You have what, 8-12 weeks to think about your opponent and overanalyze everything? Nine days is perfect.”
While MMA’s most famous ex-barista knows he enters UFC 170 as a huge underdog, Cummins, who trains at Mark Munoz’s Reign MMA gym in Orange County, insists the fact that Cormier is coming down from heavyweight will be a major factor on the bout.
“We’ve been training hard, we’ve been putting ourselves in scenarios,” Cummins said. “If I get in situations where I lose my breath here and there, I’m still better off than Daniel, coming down from some much weight, and you know, his history of being a guy who likes to take a break here and there.”
“I know what it’s like to go from heavyweight down to 205,” said Cummins, a former heavyweight. “You don’t have that horsepower behind you. You kind of have to be a little slicker with what you’re doing, you have to really employ that technique. It’s going to be a shock to his system. He’s not going to be as fast anymore and he’s not going to have as much behind what he’s doing. That’s more.”
While conventional wisdom is that Cummins finds himself in a no-lose situation, the fighter disagrees.
“There’s definitely a lose situation,” Cummins said. “I come in here expecting to get the win. That’s my mindset, that’s what I want, no matter how it comes, that’s how it goes is getting the win. I wouldn’t have called out Daniel and said hey let’s have a fight if I didn’t truly believe I could win.”