At UFC Fight Night San Diego, Jared Gordon hopes to bounce back with a much needed win over Matt Sayles.
Previously fighting as a lightweight, Gordon has struggled a bit throughout his stint with the UFC. The 31-year-old impressed many when he defeated Michel Quiñones via TKO in his debut with the promotion, and Gordon’s win streak continued when he beat Hacran Dias at UFC Fight Night São Paulo back in October 2017.
However, Gordon’s five-fight winning streak was snapped when he suffered a devastating loss to Carlos Diego Ferreira at UFC Fight Night Austin. Since then, the UFC fighter continued to flounder within the lightweight division by only winning one of his last four fights. His last bout against Charles Oliveira ended with a TKO loss.
Despite his previous stumbles, Gordon is looking on the bright side of his upcoming fight against Sayles on May 16. The veteran will be making his return to the 145-pound division and in the eyes of Gordon, this is just the rejuvenation his career needs:
“This is what I need. I find it rejuvenating, and it’s a new chapter,” Gordon said during his MMA Junkie interview. It’s my resurgence back, to put together a win streak, and I truly believe this is where I’m supposed to be, so I’m really excited. I’m pumped up and excited to see how camp goes, how I feel, and it’s given me a new purpose and a new mission. I believe my strengths as a fighter will be shown more, and I really do think this is what I needed.”
Unfortunately, Gordon’s fight against Oliveira didn’t go his way; however, he sees the loss as a blessing in disguise as he thinks that fighting in the 155-pound division was a mistake in the first place:
“I took a chance fighting Oliveira,” Gordon said. “I wasn’t supposed to fight Oliveira. I was supposed to fight someone else, and they pulled out. They couldn’t get Oliveira a fight because he’s on a tear, and nobody wanted to fight him in his hometown in Sao Paulo. Nobody in front of him wanted to fight him, no one closely ranked behind him wanted to fight him, so they gave me the opportunity, and it didn’t go my way obviously.
“But now I’m looking at it like a blessing because I was fighting at 155 pounds, and I truly believe that I’m too small, too short. Dude, I have a 66-inch reach. That’s like a reach of a 135er, so I believe I really was fighting out of my wight class. But if I would’ve won that fight, I would’ve been ranked at 155, and then I would’ve been fighting people ranked after Oliveira – all monsters, they’re all huge and technically really good. So I truly believe I’m supposed to be at 145 in order to be successful and go where I want to go.”
Like many, Gordon is nervous about his fight being cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak; however, he will continue to train unless he’s told not to do so. Check out the full interview where the featherweight talks about his new training camp, how his life changed when he got married, and so much more!