You hear fighters say they want to always fight and stay active, but it doesn’t happen often. There are exceptions like Donald Cerrone and Nam Phan, who are fighting this Friday at UFC 141.
But another 141 participant is also willing to fight anywhere, anytime.
Junior Assuncao (13-4 MMA, 2-2 UFC) returns after fighting at UFC 135, and will be facing Ross Pearson (12-5 MMA, 4-2 UFC) tomorrow night at UFC 141 in a key featherweight bout. UFC 141 takes place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and this fight will be a part of the Spike TV broadcast starting at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.
Pearson is making his debut at featherweight, and you would think Assuncao would have the advantage due to Pearson never fighting at 145, but Assuncao isn’t so sure about that.
“That’s hard to tell you know,” Assuncao told me.
“I’m sure he’s doing his homework right. I’m sure everything right in his diet just as much as I have. I’m pretty close to the weight right now. I fought in September, took about 10 days off and I was already begging the UFC for another fight. My manager was like, “take some time off.”
“A lot of the guys these days, they just want to keep the UFC appearance,” Assuncao said.
“It doesn’t do me any good to be in the UFC if I’m not fighting. So as soon as I was done with my fight, I couldn’t wait to get back in there and expose myself again. You only lose if you fight. That’s the kind of mindset I have.”
After just fighting in September, you would think Assuncao would have wanted to fight at the beginning of 2012, but Assuncao had every intention of getting in one more fight in 2011.
“I really wanted to fight year,” Assuncao said.
“My mindset was, “I’m gonna win this next one, so I’ll be 2-0 this year (in the UFC). That will put me on a eight-fight win streak, and then next year, I’ll win two more, and then the end of next year, I should be in title contention.”
Pearson wasn’t even the first opponent the UFC offered to Assuncao. The UFC originally offered Felipe Sertanejo to Assuncao, but he wanted to take a fight that was going to advance his career, and that’s when Pearson was offered. Nothing personal, but Assuncao wants to get to the top of the featherweight division, and the quickest way to the top is through Pearson in his mind.
“They (the UFC) had that Felipe (Sertanejo) guy as a matter of fact,” Assuncao said.
“Freddy (Assuncao’s brother) faced him in his first MMA fight. The guy was already a veteran. Don’t take anything away from the guy obviously. You know, I want to be champion, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I want the toughest fights. I could’ve fought that guy. Maybe in the business aspect, it could have been the smarter thing to do. But I was gonna go back to fighting on the undercard, Facebook fights, which I don’t have a problem with that.
But I had to put it on the scale. Fight a no-name guy, I was going to beat him anyways and then fight a name guy? Now, the Ross Pearson deal is a high risk. The reward I’m totally aware of. So I like that. I like to take challenges. Me going through Ross Pearson, that will catapult me to the front of the line instead of taking no name guys and the risk to lose is the same. Anybody can punch you in your jaw and lights out, and that’s the end of the night. I was like, you know what, I’m gonna take a high-risk fight. I understand the reward; that’s why I chose Ross Pearson.”
You can listen to the two-part interview with Junior Assuncao here.
You can follow me on Twitter @fightclubchi.
Steven Muehlhausen is a contributor for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand.
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