Las Vegas, NV — Phil Rowe or ‘Raul’ (watch the video) picked up his first octagon win at UFC Vegas 33, but it came at a price: 20% of his purse due to missing weight.
Rowe handed Orion Cosce his first professional loss when he finished him via TKO in the second round. While it took Rowe one round to get going, he let his hands go in the second with great success. It was all part of the plan.
“I was just trying to be patient; I wanted to feel him early. He was using a lot of static energy, so like in those grappling exchanges that I was on the ground-my coaches kept saying, ‘you gotta get up, you gotta get up, work, you gotta get up’, I heard them, but he was using hella static energy. He was clamped, and I could hear him-you know that static energy, so I knew he was gassing himself out,” Rowe told reporters during his post-fight interview.
While “The Fresh Prince” got his first UFC win, he did miss weight by 2.5 lbs, surrendering 20% of his purse to Cosce. Rowe explained the miss.
“This is the first time, no excuse though; self-accountability is why I’m here. I missed weight. Orion got some money of mine but, I don’t know, I mean I just— I usually always can make weight. I can make weight without a scale, I don’t know what happened differently,” Rowe said. “Me and my teammate went to go cut the last 3.5lbs yesterday morning, and I did 25 minutes in the sauna— three minutes out, ten minutes in, three minutes out, ten minutes in, then I rested for three minutes outside and then we did another ten-minute session. Ten minutes in, three out, ten in, three out. I ddi over an hour. I know that’s four pounds. I lost 2.5. I was like, what the hell? And I was done!”
“So, I was sitting at 173.2, and I was dead at that point. I hadn’t drank [anything since the day before]. It was decision on my part, to like hey, kill myself. I had just did what I’ve been doing for the past three years to make weight, and I always lose four pounds. I lost two and a half, and would still have been like 0.5 over. So I was like, let me not kill myself, I weighed in two pounds over, take it on the chin, learn from it and go forward.”
Rowe wants one more fight before the year ends, hopefully in November. He’s also thrilled to keep his 100% finishing rate. “It’s amazing. I’m a monster. Me and Francis Ngannou, right there. It’s good. When I win fights, I finish. When I don’t finish fights, I lose. So let’s just keep finishing these guys.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 33 post-fight press conference with Phil Rowe above.
