Perhaps no fighter has stood out more since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, in terms of in-cage success, than Bobby Green.
Green (27-10-1) has put together three wins against solid opposition in Clay Guida, Lando Vannata, and Alan Patrick. At UFC Vegas 12 this weekend, the veteran lightweight returns against Thiago Moises, in a fight that could land him in the 155lb rankings.
Not that Green is overly worried about those. “I really don’t pay attention to those things. That’s for you guys that go with the rankings,” Green said during the UFC Vegas 12 media day this week. “And wherever you like, jump behind and push. I just do my job. That’s my job, to do what I do. And it is what it is.”
What it is has been a fantastic turnaround for Green these part several months. In a way, it’s a shame the fans haven’t been in the building to see it. Though as Green told Cageside Press, “to be honest, I think the fans, if they were here, they probably wouldn’t have liked me. They never have. The true MMA fans love me, they like and get what I’m doing. But usually, I’m always going against the hometown boy. And so the fans are usually against me.”
During the pandemic, however, anyone watching has got to see “a different me,” Green added. “So I think that people need to pay a little more attention.”
Without the crowd present, Green also has less of a distraction. “I want to say I agree with that,” he said of the suggestion. “I think sometimes because I’m a showman, and I want a good fight, that sometimes the crowd can distract me. And maybe [my opponent] does something like a kick. And I want the crowd to know, that wasn’t good. Or he hit me here, he didn’t land, you know? And so I’m sometimes getting to communicate with the crowd and fight at the same time. So therefore, it can be a distraction sometimes. So I think it works in my favor for now.”
When it comes to the secret to Green’s success, however, “I’d say the biggest thing for me was my mindset.” Green credits coach Sam Mason for that. “I don’t know where I’d be without the guy, to be honest,” he admitted. Green is a believer in positivity, something he didn’t always get in the past. Mason, however, “is always able to help me out when I’m in times of crisis, and get my mind back focused. So I think that the key that you’re seeing is Mason.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 12 virtual media day press scrum with Bobby Green above.
