Never losing confidence in his abilities, UFC Argentina’s Austin Arnett got back to old-school, Rocky-style training ahead of his fight this weekend with Humberto Bandenay.
UFC Argentina finds featherweight Austin Arnett with his back against the wall. Of that, there is no question. Arnett is in an unusual place for a UFC fighter, on an 0-3 run, with one of those losses technically outside the UFC. That came on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series, where Arnett lost a unanimous decision against Brandon Davis. Davis won a UFC contract. Arnett, however, impressed enough to get a short notice deal, debuting in the UFC just a week after Davis himself.
However, after dropping his first two fights in the promotion, Arnett is in must-win territory heading into UFC Argentina. There, he takes on Peru’s Humberto Bandenay (14-5, 1NC). With arguably the most important fight of his career to date looming, however, Arnett is staying positive.
“You can’t get down on yourself,” he told Cageside Press ahead of his trip to Argentina. When it comes to losses, “That’s just the fight game. Sometimes things are going to go your way, sometimes they’re not.” What keeps Arnett’s spirits up is that “I know what I do in the gym, and what I’ve done in previous fights earlier in my career, and what I’m capable of. I just stay focused on how I’m doing in the gym and what I’ve done before. I’ve never lost any confidence in myself from losing fights.”
In fighting, you’re either winning, or learning (or both, really). After his last bout, a unanimous decision loss to Hakeem Dawodu at UFC Calgary, Arnett realized that “I was overthinking too much. I was trying to process things, and I just need to be more reactive. Use my instincts, not think so much out there.”
The issue started well before fight night. “That last training camp, I knew about the fight and the fighter for like twelve weeks out. That’s a long time to be game planning for someone, thinking about someone,” Arnett explained, “and I think that I just kind of got into my own head, with trying to figure him out instead of just going out there and just fighting. Getting in a dogfight, being aggressive, and relying on my natural instincts and athleticism to win the fight.”
This time around, however, he feels the four week lead time he’s had for UFC Argentina and Bandenay will benefit him more. Never out of shape, Arnett believes that “to get a four-week notice camp is almost perfect, because I can get in good shape quick. I’m always in good shape, and I can get in fight shape really fast. So I think that’s beneficial for me. I’m just going to be more instinctual, I’m not going to worry so much about what he’s going to do.”
The game plan is essentially for Arnett to “be aggressive, bring the fight to him, and do what I do.”
The shortened training camp at Sik-jitsu in Spokane has been awesome, Arnett told us. “We’ve been doing two-a-days, getting after it, old-school training. Just bite down on the mouthpiece, getting hard rounds in, grappling, sparring. And I’m excited to get back to that, and show what I can do.”
Last time out, Arnett split his camp between Vegas and Spokane, at Syndicate MMA and the UFC Performance Institute. However, with just four weeks to prep for UFC Argentina, “I think with this camp, it’s better for me to just stay home, and get back to my roots of what got me to where I’m at. Kind of that old-school, Rocky-style training where we’re in a small gym, a small, close group of guys.” Cue the training montage, and Gonna Fly Now (Rocky theme music).
While Arnett admitted that heading over to Argentina will be a hassle, and a 24-hour travel day, he’s not overly concerned about any side effects. “It’s a pain in the *ss, but I’ve got my weight all on-point. That’s the biggest thing is your weight, with that kind of travel. Because Sunday’s my day off anyway, and that’s the day I’m traveling.” So he won’t miss any training, and working with George Lockhart, he’ll be taken care of in the dietary department.
Arnett’s opponent, Humberto Bandenay, is coming off a loss of his own. Prior to that, he’d been on a six fight winning streak, but then, Arnett himself racked up a thirteen fight win streak prior to the contender series. Regardless, “he’s tough,” Austin Arnett said of his upcoming foe. “He’s a long striker, he’s good off his back, he’s got good subs, arm-bars, triangles. He’s a good opponent, I think I match up really good with him.”
Seeing himself as the “heavier striker,” Arnett believes that “I land with a little more power, a little more pop than he’s got. He’s got good kicks, you gotta watch out for, he likes to throw his head kicks and body kicks, I’ll be watching out for those.”
“There’s not going to be any judges in this fight. I’m not worried about that at all.”
It’s a match-up Arnett is excited for. “I think it’s a great match-up. As soon as they brought it up to me, I was 100% all in for this fight.”
Arnett told us he does see some holes in Bandenay’s game. And while he’s not about to let any secrets slip, he suggested that “there’s some things that he does that I do a lot better, and I think I’ll definitely be able to exploit those. You’ll see it early on in the fight. It’ll be really obvious, right off the bat, what I’m trying to do.” Keep your eyes peeled.
As for any concern about the scorecards, “there’s not going to be any judges in this fight. I’m not worried about that at all. I’m a finisher, and I’m going to finish the fight.” The judges, meanwhile, “they can take this fight off, they’re not going to be needed for it.”
His prediction for the win is simple: “I’m going to knock him out. Hundred percent. I think it’s going to be first round, honestly. I’m going to be aggressive, walk right through him, and knock him out in the first. If he can weather that early storm, maybe he makes it to the second, but it’s going to be an early knockout for sure.”
When we spoke to Austin Arnett, talk throughout the MMA world was all about the apparent impending demise of the flyweight division. “I think we all knew it was coming,” he said of talk that the weight class would be shuttered. “I mean, they were talking about closing the ’25lb division for a while. As soon as we saw Demetrious get traded, I think everyone kind of knew that that was the end of it.”
“They’re great fighters, I like watching a lot of 125lb fighters fight,” he told us, “but it is a business, and if the UFC’s not making money off someone, or a division or something, they’re going to move on from it. That’s just kind of how the sport is. It’s not a big shock to me.”
Arnett does see the potential for a new weight class to emerge from the chaos. “With them closing the 25 division, I hope it opens up a division for 65,” he said. “So I hope they do 55, 65, 75. I think that’s kind of a step in that direction.”
As for the flyweight division, and other divisions in general, the good news is, there’s competition elsewhere, from Bellator to ONE Championship. “I think it’s always healthy for the sport for other organizations to be doing well and thriving,” he said, noting that in particular, “ONE seems to be doing really good.”
He’s heard good things about the Asian MMA outfit, as teammate Tyler McGuire at Sik-jitsu will be competing for the welterweight championship in ONE this weekend in Jakarta, Indonesia. “He’s going to take Askren’s old title over there. That’ll be pretty cool, it’ll be our first world championship,” Arnett exclaimed. “That’s pretty exciting, morale’s pretty high over here.”
It could be a big weekend for Spokane’s Sik-jitsu. UFC Argentina (UFC Fight Night 140) takes place Saturday, November 17 in Buenos Aires, Argentina at the Mary Terán de Weiss Stadium. The card airs on Fox Sports 1 (TSN 5/Fight Network in Canada).
