Niko Price sees his scrap with Geoff Neal at UFC 240 as just another fight, on just another card, but he definitely appreciates the talents of headliner Frankie Edgar.
Edmonton, AB — Even in Summer, Edmonton has its chilly days. Ahead of UFC 240’s media day Thursday, the sky was overcast, the temperature a little low for those not acclimated to the Albertan city. Count welterweight Niko Price among them
“It’s nice. A little colder than I like,” he said of his first visit to Edmonton, speaking to Cageside Press ahead of UFC 240. “I hate the cold. As you can see, I’m cold. I even got the high socks.” And a hoodie. The whole deal. Friday was probably more his thing — come weigh-ins, the sun was beaming.
Price has been a finishing machine thus far in his career. Thirteen wins. Twelve finishes. There’s no real secret. “I fight. I train hard and I fight even harder.”
Finishes, however, are something he imagines in advance. “I go in there and envision finishes. I envision them, God gives me them, I go in there and I find them.”
His last two wins have come with Performance bonuses attached, but he doesn’t read more into those outings. “It just happened to be a spectacular night. I was blessed that night. God gave me the glory to do something crazy and get those bonuses. It just happens.”
On opponent Geoff Neal, Price said that “I’ve seen him before. I’ve fought on the same card as him. He’s a good guy, a great fighter. He’s going to come in there and bang and so am I.”
The obvious thing he has to look out for is “his hands. It’s his name, ‘Hands of Steel.’ He’s going to try to come in there and put some hands on me. I’m going to put my hands on him and then we’re going to see what happens.”
While some might see this as a step up for Neal, with Price being the test the Contender Series winner must pass, “I look at it like, he’s a good fighter, I’m a good fighter. We’re fighting to be in a higher rank,” Price said. So the fight is another fight. Same with the main card, PPV placement. “It’s another fight. This is pretty much talking to my friends, same thing to me. Before the fights, everyone’s asking you a hundred questions and all that stuff. My whole life. This is just another way. I’m so used to talking to people. I talk a lot.”
It is, however, a card with a couple of legends at the top in Max Holloway vs. Frankie Edgar. Price wasn’t picking a winner. “I just want to see a cool fight. Those two are both awesome fighters. I just want to see an amazing fight.”
Edgar is someone Price was a fan of coming up. “I watched [Frankie] a lot. The dude is indestructible. You knock him down, he gets back up, knocked down, he gets back up, knocked down, he gets back up. It’s awesome.” As to a favorite Frankie moment, “definitely the Maynard one. He got dropped, came back up, then knocked him out. Hands down, that’s awesome. I want to be like that.”
