Canada’s Tanner Boser pulled off an impressive performance at UFC on ESPN 12. A knockout of former PFL heavyweight champion Philipe Lines, in the opening round of their preliminary card fight.
The thunderous knockout will no doubt earn Boser (18-6-1) a step up in competition moving forward. Or perhaps the fight he’s been calling for with Maurice Greene, who also picked up a key win at Saturday’s card in Las Vegas.
However, Boser’s performance wasn’t supposed to go down the way it did. Or at least not when it did. Originally slated for the event’s main card, just an hour or so before show time, he was told he’d be fighting on the prelims.
“They changed that up on me like an hour before I fought,” he exclaimed post-fight to media outlets including Cageside Press. Not that it impacted him too much. “I mean, normally probably, but I’m a mutt, man. I function just fine in any circumstances. I’m not specialized. I can fight anyone, anywhere, anytime. I mean it. So although it’s inconvenient and kind of annoying, it didn’t affect me at all.”
During Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 12 broadcast, there was a suggestion made that Boser could drop to light heavyweight. Boser isn’t the largest heavyweight, and weighed 235lbs for the fight. It’s an idea that Boser, however, instantly dismissed, failing to see the logic in changing divisions while coming off a win.
“Yeah, great. Yeah, everybody thinks that. Why don’t you just lose 30 pounds? No. Why? I just won, I should go to light heavyweight because I just kicked ass?” he exclaimed. “[That] doesn’t make any sense.”
Later, Boser would address the recent trend of heavyweights coming in a little lighter.
“It’s such a big weight class, anything above 205 up to 265. Some guys are giants. Some guys have to cut weight and that’s just the way it is. It’s just how they are. Some guys are somewhere in the middle and don’t feel like killing themselves to get 205,” he opined. “Everybody’s so quick to jump on a guy who’s 30 pounds above a weight class. They go to 205 and then turn around the next day and say ‘Oh! Fighter safety I don’t want guys cutting too much weight. What about their health?’ Make up your mind. I’m happy here, you know?”
Watch the full UFC on ESPN 12 post-fight press conference with Tanner Boser above.
