Las Vegas, NV — Darrick Minner enters this weekend’s UFC Vegas 32 card in a very different place than a year and a half ago, when he made his promotional debut.
Minner (26-11), a long-time veteran of the regional scene, was a short-notice fighter against Grant Dawson in Norfolk, Virginia in February 2020. He took the bout just eight days out, and Dawson, who is coincidentally a teammate these days, missed weight for the fight. Ultimately, Minner found himself submitted.
His next two fights played out very different. Two straight wins, and coming off them, “I feel great,” Minner said during the UFC Vegas 32 media day. “But I didn’t come here just to win a couple fights. So that’s where we’re at.”
Minner goes up against the well-known Darren Elkins in Vegas this weekend. It’s an exciting match-up on paper, without question.
“I just want to go in there and show that he’s good, but I’m better everywhere,” Minner said in regards to Elkins, like Minner a veteran of the sport. “That’s the biggest thing. He’s been around and fought the who’s who and all that. That’s my goal. Just go in there and implement my game, and I know if I show up and fight like I do, it’s going to be a path to victory whether I get the finish, or I win a decision.”
This is the third time in three fights that Darrick Minner has found himself on the main card of a UFC event. “They know who’s a main card fighter, I think,” Minner told Cageside Press during Wednesday’s media day.
When he saw the event being put together, Minner knew he’d be on the main card once again. “There was no way they were putting this fight on the prelims. If it was, whatever, but I feel like I’m a main card-type fighter. I’m exciting, I’m going to go in there and fist-fight. I’m a fighter’s fighter. That’s what I want to do, I want to go in there, I want to fight, I go for the finish, and I want to finish fights.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 32 media day scrum with Darrick Minner above.
