Las Vegas, NV – UFC newcomer Bassil Hafez will make his debut at UFC Vegas 77 against Jack Della Maddalena on Saturday night, but actually getting a fight in the promotion brought tears of joy for the welterweight.
“I was basically cutting weight and just keeping my weight low and training really hard just in hopes of someone pulling out a fight, of like any fight this summer, and I said yes to several names of pullouts that happened recently,” Hafez told reporters on Wednesday.
“Big names and said yes to all of them. Didn’t really get a yes back, and just continued to stay ready and prepared. When this fell out last week, I texted (my manager) right away, I said I would take that fight in a heartbeat. No hesitation.”
The wait grew even longer last week when Josiah Harrell got the fight only to be forced to withdraw due to a serious medical issue.
“His team ended up picking Josiah Harrell, and then he had that issue happen with the MRI,” he said.
That left the door wide open for Hafez to get the fight this week at the UFC APEX.
“Got the call on Monday night from my manager, Jason House, and tears of joy. I was like in shock, but also like super excited. It’s a great feeling,” said Hafez.
“I didn’t know it was going to happen. I thought the fight was going to fall through and they were going to give him a different opponent or whatever, but it happened Monday night. Just so happy.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Bassil Hafez above. He takes on Jack Della Maddalena at UFC Vegas 77 on Saturday night.
