When Adam Fugitt steps into the cage on Satruday night at UFC 289, he likely won’t hear the roar of an entirely friendly crowd. While he is from the Pacific northwest, he’ll be facing Mike Malott, a Canadian who has a quickly growing fan base.
Although it might not be the situation all fighters dream of, Fugitt has become pretty comfortable with this role.
“I think I’ve kind of established that, I don’t know is it a persona? I think that’s your typical Adam Fugitt fight,” he said. “They’re going to send him into enemy territory as the Vegas betting odds underdog against one of these big prospects.”
This trend started before Fugitt even enteres the UFC. His last regional level fight, the one that caught the eye of UFC brass, was against hot regional prospect Solomon Renfro. Renfro, like Malott, was a Contender Series guy who had the hype behind him. Fugitt derailed that hype with a 43 second knockout.
Despite the big win and all the other accolades he carries, Fugitt was still led down a harder path.
“This is the fourth fight in a row that I’ve fought a guy that was on Contender Series,” he said. “I’m not sure if there’s any truth to this, but when I was trying to get on Contender Series, it was made out that my age was a little bit of an issue. So I didn’t get that opportunity. I had to come in on 9 days notice against Michael Morales.”
However, he isn’t playing the victim card here. He knows that his mental state is just important as his physical and emphasizes that he’s not a gift for anyone.
“You have to [feed off of it]. If I let it get in my head to much, you make yourself out to be a victim,” Fugitt said. “I’m a shark too. They’re putting these guys through the ringer. The test is me. Can you get over this hump?”
While he’s making his name and getting comfortable in this role, he isn’t getting too comfortable. He hopes that a big win over Malott this weekend could begin to change the narrative around him in the near future.
“Sooner or later that’s going to change. It’ll go from Adam Fugitt is the gatekeeper to the UFC to Adam Fugitt is the prospect making his way up the ladder,” he stated.
Saturday gives him the first opportunity to change that narrative as he squares off with Mike Malott on the UFC 289 pay-per-view. The pay-per-view portion of the card begins at 10pm EST.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 31:07.
