London, U.K. – Moving up a division doesn’t mean taking an easy fight for his first run at featherweight but UFC’s Jack Shore will get his feet wet at 145-pounds when he faces Makwan Amirkhani at UFC 286 on Saturday.
“The last probably three or four weight cuts have been really tough. There’s no secret I always look like death on when I’m up on the scale. My old man and my other coaches have probably been at me for about 12-18 months to consider the move,” Shore told reporters including Cageside Press on Wednesday.
“It’s easy to forget about a tough weight cut when you’re winning all the time, and I think the fact that I lost I felt like I didn’t…I don’t want to blame the loss on the weight cut. That’d be unfair to my opponent, but I felt like I didn’t carry in what I do in the gym into the cage.”
Shore (16-1) went to work getting a full work up of his body to figure out the best way to handle weight cuts. He ultimately chose to move up after seeing the results.
“They kind of looked at me stupid as if to say ‘You keep cutting all this weight something’s going to go wrong.’ I feel like I’ve said this 100 times, but if something happens in the cage I know what I signed up for, but if something drastic happens in the bath or in the sauna beforehand then that’s not what I signed up for,” he said.
The possibility of hurting himself worse in the weight cut than in the cage was what pushed Shore to give 145-pounds a try.
“I just thought let’s give it a go. I didn’t want to kind of jump into it like right just go up a weight and not cut any weight. I wanted to do it properly, spent good four months before Christmas putting on some lean mass and some muscle,” said Shore.
Shore said wanted to step into the cage as a legit featherweight and not a blown-up bantamweight.
Meanwhile Shore is happy to be fighting closer to home this time around. He last fought in New York in 2022 before taking time off to move up to featherweight.
“Nice to be local again not have to go to New York or Vegas. Nice little three-hour drive. I feel if i’ve got to pick between this one and the last one I would have picked this one anyway. Big pay-per-view card, main event, massive co-main, so I think a lot of eye will be on this one. Good to be back in London,” he said.
No longer undefeated Shore comes into UFC 286 with a more relaxed mindset no longer having to worry about his record or the pressure that comes with it.
“It’s nice to be undefeated and all that, but the pressure does mount a little bit. It feels like I got a monkey off my back. I can go out there now and just focus on this fight. I know what it’s like to lose, I’ve experienced it, I’ve felt it. The heart break and all that of it,” said Shore.
“Life goes on and it’s nice to be able to just focus on this fight now and go out there and get after it.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Jack Shore above. He takes on Makwan Amirkhani at UFC 286 on Saturday at The O2 Arena.
