Corey Anderson is a fighter Patrick Cummins was well prepared for. He’s thrilled to finally get a chance to tango with him, after a staph infection nixed their first meeting.
Atlantic City, NJ — Patrick Cummins finally gets to throw down with Corey Anderson this Saturday at UFC Fight Night 128. ‘Durkin’ was originally supposed to face the Ultimate Fighter 19 winner back at UFC 217 last year. Yet a persistent and rather nasty staph infection knocked the light heavyweight off the card. Having trained for Anderson specifically, however, Cummins didn’t want to let it go. Despite Anderson being knocked out by Ovince St. Preux, Cummins’ replacement at UFC 217, he was thrilled to get another chance to scrap with his fellow wrestler.
Saying that to him, there was a bit of pride involved (with both men coming from a wrestling background), Cummins said Thursday at the UFC Atlantic City media day that he was surprised the UFC put the fight back together. “I kind of felt like, okay, maybe we want to look for somebody a little bit higher ranked,” Cummins explained. “But when they offered it, I was like ‘yeah!'”
“I’ve trained a bunch for this fight, and it’s an ideal match-up for me,” he said of the pairing.
Cummins recently followed his coach, Neil Melanson, to Denver, CO, and has been training at altitude for a while now. Though he hasn’t made the move permanent just yet, it looks like he’s planning to, and things are working out well in Denver. He’s definitely noticed the difference, he explained. “It took me, I think just because I’m older, it took me a lot longer to acclimate to the altitude,” Cummins said, “but once I did, I was like ‘alright, I feel good now.’ But at the same time, I can’t stay away from home for too long now, because I don’t want to start all over again. I don’t want this month and a half of acclimation thing to happen again.”
The feeling when he does leave Denver, however, is something else. “Now, coming down to sea level I’m like ‘ooohh, yeah lets go!'”
Cummins (10-4) is one of those fascinating success stories that only seems to happen in MMA. His days slinging coffee are well known, but at 37, the former wrestler has compiled a 6-4 record in the promotion that all started with a short notice fight against Daniel Cormier. Given his history with D.C., it was impossible not to get his take on the impending superfight between the light heavyweight champion and heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it’s Cormier Cummins is giving the nod to, “given his history of wrestling heavyweights and big guys that I consider really, really tough and not having a problem with them.” As he pointed out, “then he transitioned to fighting and fought some really big dudes and did really well, threw guys around that you were just kind of like ‘woah'”
“Of course, Stipe’s the man. But I dunno, for some reason I just see Daniel taking control of this,” Cummins added. As a disclaimer, however, he finished by saying “I don’t bet, so don’t listen to me.”
Patrick Cummins meets Corey Anderson to open the UFC Atlantic City (UFC Fight Night 128) televised preliminary card. The action goes down this Saturday, April 21 at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ.
