Boston, MA — Bantamweight Cody Gibson is happy he no longer has to hold his Ps and Qs any longer, with his The Ultimate Fighter 31 semifinal fight airing earlier this week.
Gibson’s fight with Rico DiSciullo was the last bout of the twelve-episode season, and he’s had to stay mum on how he did on the show since shooting wrapped earlier this year. That created some difficult situations with training partners, who wanted to know how he fared on the reality series.
“Most people have been cool with it, but a few people kind of get offended,” Gibson (19-8) said of having to keep the outcome of the show close to his chest. “I like you, but I don’t like you that much” was his approach to keeping his secret.
No longer. Gibson fights Brad Katona at UFC 292 in the TUF 31 bantamweight final this Saturday. Now in his mid-30s and fighting to return to the promotion he once called home (he was cut by the UFC in 2015), Gibson is fully aware that his time in the sport is short.
“All of this is fleeting, it can go away at any time. Just trying to enjoy it. I’m 35-years old, seven, eight years from now there’s no way I’m going to be here. Five years from now, there’s probably no way I’m going to be here,” admitted Gibson. “So trying to enjoy it while it lasts, and just have fun with it. I put in the longest camp I’ve ever had for this fight. Usually fighters aren’t given this much notice for when they’re going to fight, so tried to take advantage of that, and just proud of the work we put in. Ready to cash in the chips so to speak.”
Gibson butted heads with opponent Katona during the film of TUF 31, criticizing the Canadian for a perceived lack of action in his fights.
“Brad, I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt early on in the show. He was my roommate. But there were just things he did that were very self-centred, that hurt other people and benefited him,” recalled Gibson. “The editing of the show didn’t necessarily go into all that stuff, so there’s some context missing in some of his stuff.”
Despite that, Gibson isn’t carrying any negative feelings into the fight. “Yeah he’s not my favorite guy, but at the end of the day, I studied his film, I studied his movement, we looked at areas we can exploit. I don’t really take too much emotion into the fight, I’ve learned that lesson over 15 years of doing this, said Gibson. “So yeah I’m not going to have any issues or reservations punching him in the face for sure, but it’s just another opponent. And what’s interesting, he actually showed some heart in his semifinals fight. He bit down on his mouthpiece, it was a great fight, I actually thought he lost that fight but it was a close fight. He showed he can fight when he’s forced to.”
“I don’t think Brad truly likes to be in the fire, and I’m going to put him in the fire,” Gibson later stated.
Watch the full UFC 292 media day appearance by Cody Gibson above.
