This Saturday, Gabriel Green will officially make his UFC debut.
The 27-year-old has been working his way through Bellator MMA, Combate Americas, and California Xtreme Fighting, and Green has made waves in the professional landscape since his first bout in 2016. Like many fighters who stepped into the octagon, Gabriel grew up a massive fan of the sport, or just anything that involved fighting:
“I was always, always, always, always super interested into fighting. When I was little, everything fighting on the tv i was all about, like I wanted to be a power ranger. Green stated on the Lockdown Podcast. “I wanted to be a ninja and hit people so i was always super interested in it. “
Not surprisingly, fighters tend be nervous before their first bout; however, the welterweight was calm before his first match-up and was actually hyped over getting to live out his dream:
“So back stage in pro or amateur, there’s a couple different types of people. Believe it or not, people don’t like getting punched in the face, or being locked in a cage with people trying to punch them in the face…So you can see that back stage, guys pacing around back and forth, using the bathroom every 5 seconds, super nervous…And I’m just like taking a nap. I’m Chillin…Fighting is just one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. So I look forward to it, I’m more like giddy.”
UFC actually contacted Green on several different occasions; however, the California native was still recovering from a couple of injuries that forced him to take time away from the octagon:
“Yeah but I had to take two years off because of injuries…And my hand was in a cast, my shoulder was getting fixed after surgery, and the UFC hit me up and they were like do you want to come fight for us? And I was like nah I can’t and that was it. They actually hit me up a couple times, I think it was three times during the healing process and I was just like nah, nah I can’t…So you know now I’m just hoping they call me back now!”
Check out the full interview on the Lockdown Podcast where Green discusses more about his career inside the octagon thus far. The welterweight will clash against Daniel Rodriguez on the UFC Fight Night: Woodley vs. Burns show on Saturday, May 30.