Undefeated featherweight Robbie Ring is set to throw down on Week 3 of Dana White’s Contender Series Season 7 on Tuesday night, the latest UFC hopeful looking to earn a contract for the big show.
It’s an opportunity the newlywed (he got hitched just weeks out from his appearance on DWCS) knew was coming, “but when it actually turns to reality, you still got that kind of shock.”
“Ever since I was a little boy growing up, watching the UFC, it’s been my goal to make it to this stage. Sharing that same octagon as all of my childhood idols, it’s surreal,” Ring told Cageside Press recently. While Tuesday will mark the biggest fight of his career to date, “I’m training the same as I have for all of my fights,” Ring added. “I take this sport very serious, so I’ve been preparing for this for a long time.”
In terms of mental preparation, Ring admits that prior to turning pro, he struggled with his confidence. “I was winning fights, but I still didn’t believe in myself.” Six pro fights and six wins later, “I’ve ran through some pro fights and I’ve been successful, and now I’m starting to know myself that I’m good at this, and I can compete with these guys at this high level. And I’m going to go do it.”
Ring comes from a fighting family — his mother opened Ring Combat in the 1970s; she was a pro kickboxer with a black belt under the Chuck Norris Fighting System. His parents met at a martial arts competition; dad had his own black belt under the Walt Bayless system. “My dad, he’s been my coach ever since I started MMA fighting. He’s built me from the ground up. I believe in the system that we’re teaching— I tell everybody, it’s got an old school style to it, like the old fighters. Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz. That style is kind of getting lost in modern day MMA, but we’re still teaching it and it’s working for me. So I can’t wait to display it on the world’s biggest stage.”
When he puts that old school style on display Saturday, Ring will quite possibly be making a contender series first: it’s his mom and dad who will be in his corner, no one else.
Ring faces Luis Pajuelo on DWCS, and likes what he’s seen of his next assignment.
“We’ve definitely been watching film on him,” Ring said of his opponent, who fights out of Peru. “I think that he’s a tough fighter, I like watching him. He’s entertaining to watch, he’s a brawler. The thing that separates me from him is, he’s a striker, and I’m a full MMA fighter. I love every aspect of this game— I like the striking, I like pushing people up against the fence, and I also like slamming them down and hitting some ground n’ pound on them. I feel like I’ve got the slight edge in there just because I focus so much on multiple aspects of the fight game and not just one.”
Watch our full interview with DWCS Season 7 Week 3 featherweight Robbie Ring above!
