After two years, former TUF champ Court McGee is back in the winner’s circle, giving him a big confidence booster as the welterweight moves forward in his UFC career.
Moncton, NB — After two years, Court McGee is back in the winner’s circle. At UFC Moncton on Saturday night, McGee went the distance with fellow welterweight Alex Garcia. Garcia, an adopted Canadian, might have had the home field advantage. However unlike a previous decision which McGee was on the wrong end of in Canada, this one was free of any controversy.
The feeling, he told reporters after the fight, was something he couldn’t explain. “It was incredible. Just coming back from the surgery. Training camp. Completely out of my comfort zone. I spent a lot of time in Denver at Factory X with Mark Montoya and a bunch of killers out there, this guy Ian Heinish. Just a bunch of tough, tough guys,” McGee explained, giving a sense of how involved the whole process was. Overwhelming wasn’t a word he used, but it certainly seemed to fit. “It was uncomfortable, I was away from my family, but it was what I needed. It was that change.”
McGee still continued to work with his own head coach, and the combination saw everything come together. But when it was time to go to the scorecards, he admitted to Cageside Press that he was nervous. “Very nervous. I wasn’t at first, because they said he was Dominican, he was a tough wrestler, and he had power punches,” said McGee. “I know he knocked out a close friend of mine who has since retired, but he was standing up straight.”
Then McGee got a reminder of that previous rough decision on Canadian soil. “Somebody was like ‘aw man the Nick Ring loss was just a terrible, terrible decision, one of the worst in UFC history.’ But it was in Calgary, and he’s from Calgary, and Nick Ring is a very close friend of mine, I love him to death — but he had Bret Hart cornering him, he’s from Calgary… I didn’t think about that then, but I lost, and it was really controversial.”
This somebody (or perhaps it was a different somebody) then “put it in my head, ‘hey he’s an adopted Canadian, and you’re in Canada’ and I’m like ‘oh, sh*t! Okay you gotta get the win, you gotta get the win.'”
In the end, there was little reason for concern. The decision was clear. McGee even came close to finishing Garcia. Exactly what the doctor ordered.
“With a strong, super tough guy,” he added. “It builds you confidence. Also too, there’s some wear and tear, but I feel good. He definitely landed some good shots, so I’m going to take the two weeks, or three weeks to make sure I don’t get my head hit. But outside of that, man, I feel really good. It just boosts my confidence that I’m doing the right things.”
