In May, Josh Fremd was one win away from getting into the UFC, but his dreams were crushed when Gregory Rodrigues knocked him out in the first round at LFA 108. His opponent Rodrigues got the call to the UFC two days later to fill in for a fight on short notice.
“My coach said it best; it’s like watching your ex-girlfriend go hang out on a yacht with some rich son of a bitch and just flexing. I got to see him go live out my dreams,” Fremd told Cageside Press in an exclusive interview recently. “He got signed by the UFC two days later, fought two weeks later, got a win in the UFC. Props to him he did everything he needed to do. It was a sucky feeling; it took me a while to get over it. I’m still not 100% over it; I don’t think I ever will be.”
“It sucked. It wasn’t fun. The next couple of weeks, I was pretty depressed,” the middleweight added.
While his path to the UFC was momentarily derailed, the Factory X product knows he is UFC ready and is very close. With an impressive win at LFA 116, the UFC could be calling. The difference between his upcoming fight and his last fight is that he isn’t putting pressure on himself to make it to the biggest fight promotion. “I’ll let all that handle itself.”
Fremd fights Renato Valente this Friday in his third straight LFA main event.
“He is tough…He’s been training with Alex Pereira. I think it’s going to be a good fight, and I can see it going many ways-all of the ways I see myself getting my hand raised. It can be an early knockout, or I can drag him into hell,” Fremd said. “He’ll be up an elevation at 8000 feet; if he wants to make it three rounds and win a split decision, I hope he brought some oxygen with him because I’m going to push the pace nonstop.”
The fight takes place in Colorado, Fremd’s new home, and where his fight camp, Factory X, resides.
“I moved here two years ago, and after all of the injuries and the run I went on in LFA…I’m excited to finally fight in Colorado. All the people that I’ve met, all the relationships I’ve formed, they all get to come out and watch me fight,” Fremd said.
Josh Fremd fights Renato Valente at LFA 116, which takes place at the Dobson Arena in Vail, CO. on October 22, 2021. The event airs exclusively on UFC Fight Pass. Check out the rest of the interview above, where Fremd talks about the Pittsburgh Steelers, training camp, his loss, Colorado, and more.
