Las Vegas, NV — No Jedi mind tricks were required at UFC Vegas 50 for Matthew Semelsberger, just good old fashioned grit and determination when he battled it out with A.J. Fletcher.
Fletcher had been undefeated to start the night, but it was Semelsberger (10-3), a.k.a. “Semi the Jedi,” walking away from the welterweight bout with a unanimous decision win.
Prior to the fight, Semelsberger had told Cageside Press that a fight with Ian Garry interested him. That, it seems, hasn’t changed.
“Of course, yeah. I just want challenging fights to be honest,” he told Cageside Press backstage at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. “Part of my personality is one that’s like ‘hey, I would love to go in there and finish it quick’ but there’s the other part of me, that’s like that dog side of me, that’s like ‘nah man, let’s go knock out, drag out, like Rocky 4 style, like Rocky style,’ be the hammer then prove I can be a tough-ass nail too. I feel like both sides, but definitely going into this fight I had a feeling that it was going to be a dog fight.”
Semelsberger admitted he was in a bit of pain after the gruelling fight with Fletcher, but when it comes to a return, he’s hoping it’s sooner rather than later.
“I’d like to get back in as soon as possible. I want to have an active 2022, and in terms of being able to ride up the division, I want to keep my face fresh,” he explained. “I don’t want to take too much time off.”
Semelsberger has had an ever-changing hairstyle throughout his UFC career, but there’s more to it than just hair. “That’s the same thing with my walkout song, I never have the same walkout song, because every fight’s different. For me, fighting’s a very spiritual thing. So it’s like, this is a whole different part of my life, this is my new present. I’m going to look the same, same face, but I like to have some sort of a different look, whether it’s drastic or just slightly change a little bit, just cause it’s a new fight, a new happening, a new experience, so I want to go into it with a fresh, kind of new look.”
New look, same winning ways, as Semelsberger has now won four of his five UFC fights.
Watch the full UFC Vegas 50 post-fight media scrum with Matthew Semelsberger above.
