UFC 269: Ryan Hall Aiming for Four to Five Fights in 2022

Las Vegas, NV — Ryan Hall’s career in the UFC to date has been anything but consistent.

The Ultimate Fighter 22 winner has competed in fits and starts, never fighting twice in a year until now. On Saturday at UFC 269, Hall (9-2) went the distance with Darrick Minner, earning a unanimous decision win after being unable to finish with the numerous submission attempts he threw up.

“I’m happy to be back. It’s just great to be fighting more frequently,” Hall told media outlets including Cageside Press following the fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Expressing his gratitude for getting a tough opponent like Minner, Hall added that his fight camp had gone well. “No injuries for a change, other than the broken hand last time. I’m just looking forward to fighting again soon.”

Strength of schedule looks to be a focus of Hall moving forward. Hopefully permitted by changes he’d made to his fight camps.

Having engaged as many experts as possible and admittedly changing his thinking and approach to training, Hall appears to have the recipe to success in hand. In the past, said Hall, he’d dealt with a lot of “weird wear and tear injuries.” Then he tore his hip flexor ahead of a proposed fight with Dan Ige, which Hall called the “brick” that broke the camel’s back. “I was training around a lot of things, and I think I wasn’t getting the realistic feel that I needed to have in training camp sometimes. Also when you’re away from the ring for two years, you get into play mode. And I’m always trying to explore different things and different tactics. Some of them, I think they’re a really good idea.” Others, he noted, not so much.

Ultimately, realism is what Hall is looking for. “Making sure that training is s realistic as it needs to be,” he suggested. “If it’s too safe, it’s no good. If it’s too dangerous, that’s tough too, but if I had to err on one versus the other, you have to look for realism and make sure you’re getting the feedback you need in camp.”

With his fight camps sorted out, Hall has lofty goals for 2022. Having fought twice this year, he’s looking to double that figure. “Two is better than zero, so I’m pretty happy with that. Next year, if I can get between four and five fights, that would be phenomenal. I’m going to keep working hard,” said Hall, who will take time off to be with his family over the Holidays, then plans to get right back to work. “Come January 1st, we’re right back on it. I want to be back in the gym, I’m going to be back in the gym this week. But I want to be in training camp soon, I want to fight maybe as soon as March. I want to fight again after that, I want to fight again after that.”

“I came here for the toughest opposition, I’m not anywhere near done,” added Hall. “I just look to getting back in the ring soon against the toughest people that I can.”

Watch the full UFC 269 post-fight media appearance by Ryan Hall above. More coverage of the event can be found below.