Las Vegas, NV – UFC heavyweight Josh Parisian comes into UFC Vegas 64 against Chase Sherman on Saturday night looking to just fight and forget the pressure that comes with fighting.
Parisian (15-5) is coming off a TKO win against Alan Baudot on the last fight of his UFC contract. With a new contract in place he now takes on Sherman at the UFC APEX.
“I went into the last fight thinking it was the possibility of being the last fight on my contract, and something was like, it felt very freeing. I don’t know I just like didn’t care that much. Obviously I want to win, I want to be successful, Saturday I want to go out there be successful. I just realized that like if I put too much, I don’t know, if I worry about the end result too much that it’s too much,” Parisian told the media on Wednesday.
“When like part of me doesn’t really care…you know I’m going to go out there do my best and I can be free of that pressure of I have to win, I have to do this, I’m just such a better athlete.”
Taking on Sherman on the main card of UFC Vegas 64 brings the opportunity for an exciting fight for Parisian. One that he hopes ends in a bonus.
“I got that 50k bonus and now I’m just like ‘I gotta get it!’ you know. It’s a fight that I wanted and it was funny because I would talk about the fight. I’m like ‘Man, that would be a really good fight’ because he throws, I throw, I think that would be a fight that could get possibly both of us a 50k bonus,” Parisian said.
Parisian mentioned that he had been offered a fight against Sherman on less than 10 days notice before. The UFC had a hard time getting him the Sherman fight after that, but then he was offered the bout with 11 weeks notice.
“Then I got offered that with 11 weeks. I’m like ‘oh my god, now I got 11 weeks to get ready. That’s awesome.’ A fight that I wanted. And then they waited to re-negotiate my contract until I got that fight so that was cool too,” he said.
With a new contract in place the goal is clear.
“My goal is really, I think having the goal of just go out there and have fun, will get me more wins,” Parisian said.
“I was able to be me essentially. I think me is a good fighter.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Josh Parisian above. He takes on Chase Sherman at UFC Vegas 64 on Saturday night.
