Paris, France – He may have missed out on the first UFC event in Paris, but now Morgan Charriere has got a spot on the second one this Saturday at UFC Paris against Manolo Zecchini.
“I was really frustrated. Really disappointed. I work so much to be in the first UFC Paris that at this moment of my career, UFC came, MMA’s legal. Couldn’t be worse for me,” Charriere told reporters including Cageside Press on Wednesday.
“Really a tough time for me to see everyone enjoy UFC Paris. All the fans with this big atmosphere for the first UFC Paris so yeah it was a hard moment for me.”
Charriere (18-9) wasn’t even in the promotion at the time instead competing for Cage Warriors. Now he makes his debut in Paris, but for the UFC.
He comes off a TKO victory at CW 157 in July. Charriere figured that a big win there could get him called up to the big show in their second event in Paris, and it paid off.
“100%. It was the plan (with) my management team. It was let’s try to keep busy, like try to make good fights, take good opponents, and just fight and do good performance with finish,” he said.
“It was a tricky fight my last fight because I knew UFC was just around the corner, but I needed to embrace. Impress, but not get hurt. It was a tricky thing to do, but I managed to (do) it.”
He faces Zecchini at UFC Paris, and while he’s not taking him lightly,
“Manolo is pretty tough. He has a lot of finish in the first or early in the second round. He brings some violent energy. He tries to finish his fight. He likes to finish people and knock them out,” said Charriere.
“Im ready for this. Nobody has ever knocked me out. It will be a hard task for him to do this on me. He has a pretty tough challenge in front of him to try to knock me out.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Morgan Charriere at UFC Paris on Saturday night.
