Kansas City — Canada’s Tanner Boser, after years of competing as a heavyweight, makes the move to 205lbs this Saturday, matched up with another heavy hitter in Ion Cutelaba.
It’s a fight that “Bulldozer” Boser (20-9-1) likes “for a lot of reasons,” he told media outlets including Cageside Press during Wednesday’s UFC Kansas City media day, “but the main one is that, this can’t be a boring fight. There’s no way. I’m not getting a guy who’s trying to stall out and be boring. Me and Ion are gonna kill each other. This fight is an impending car crash, and there’s no way it’s boring. It’s going to be violent from start to finish, and I’m sure there’s going to be a finish.”
The drop down to 205lbs from heavyweight, where Boser was one of the leander figures, has him feeling great. “The weight cut’s going to be no problem, and I’m feeling really good,” he stated. As for the timing of the move, Boser wouldn’t concede that it had anything to do with the frequent criticism that he was undersized among the behemoths at heavyweight.
“After the last fight, just figured I was in striking distance of it, just decided to give it a go. I don’t recall— It was a unique idea, can’t recall anybody telling me to go to light heavyweight, ever,” Boser deadpanned. “It was all my idea, no one else is going to take credit for that at all.”
The move was “was easier than I thought,” he added. “My main diet was deer meat, and its worked perfectly. I’m my own nutritionist, so yeah, no problemo man.”
With Boser fighting in mid-April, there’s a possibility that he could made a quick turnaround to fight at UFC 289 in Vancouver on June 10. The UFC has not been to Canada since September of 2019, and pretty much every Canadian fighter has the date circled on their calendar.
While there’s an obvious appeal, “you can’t let something like that be a motivation,” noted Boser. “I’m willing to go in there and sacrifice every bone in my body to break his. If I die, I die. I don’t even care. But should I get out of there not dead and I’m not overly injured, then I will be on that card 100%. Absolutely I will. But that’s not a thing. I’d rather be comatose or hospitalized with a win than lose and not be injured.”
“We’re going to flip a coin. Who knows,” he finished.
Watch the full UFC Kansas City media day appearance by Tanner Boser above.
