Las Vegas, NV — Even after his fight at the UFC Apex on Tuesday, part of the second episode of this year’s Dana White’s Contender Series, the reality of being a UFC fighter was still settling in for Billy Goff.
Goff was dropped early in his welterweight fight with Shimon Smotritsky, but rallied back and secured a first-round TKO. And a UFC contract in the process.
“I’m happy with it,” Goff (8-2) told media outlets including Cageside Press following the fight. “I’ve gotta watch it again, because some people say it wasn’t as bad as I was [thinking]. Because obviously I wasn’t happy with getting f*cking dropped, but they said after that it was a little better. Just got to go back and watch it, keep moving, keep growing.”
Goff was quite critical of his performance immediately after the fight, but walked that back just a little with the media. “I didn’t look that bad, or else Dana wouldn’t have signed me,” he noted.
It’s been a wild 2022 for Billy Goff, who became a double-champ on the regional circuit in MMA prior to landing on the Contender Series this week.
“It’s been busy, it’s been jam-packed, highs and lows,” he told Cageside Press regarding his year thus far. “And a lot of it has just been move, move, move, move, keep going forward. It’s been flying by. But it’s been good, it’s been a lot of fun.”
When it comes time to look back, Goff expects to have a “Holy sh*t” sort of reaction. “I did a lot that year.”
Goff wasn’t thrown by the empty UFC Apex on Tuesday, but one thing did give him pause: seeing Dana White in real life. The UFC President gave Tuesday’s fighters a brief pep talk before the event. “It was weird seeing Dana in person for the first time,” Goff admitted. “It was like, ‘damn, I’ve seen you on TV so many times.'”
Watch the full Dana White’s Contender Series 48 post-fight media appearance by Billy Goff above.
