As Connor Matthews prepares for his second chance on Contender Series, it would be hard to not look back at his first bid for a UFC contract. Last year, the Massachusetts native had his first shot against Francis Marshall and came up short on a unanimous decision.
As he looked back at it, he acknowledges that Marshall came with some things that he wasn’t quite prepared for.
“I underestimated Francis [Marshall] – first of all – from what I saw,” Marshall shared. “Overall, Francis is a tough kid and he went out there and proved it. He had really good striking, which I didn’t expect in that fight.”
While Marshall’s work was really high level, Matthews also notes that he had issues with what he was trying to do. Some of that came from some bad habits that he got into when he was fighting on the regional scene.
“Also, there was a lot of flaws in my game at the time,” he said. “The mentality of the way that I could strike. In the lower levels, you can get away with going in there and trying to finish somebody really quick and you get used to that happening.”
Following the fight, he was able to train with the man that denied him a chance at his dream. Although some might expect hostility at that moment, there was anything but.
“It was fine. There’s nothing to prove at that point. It was all about building and making each other better – telling us things he saw,” Matthews recalled. “Sharing information back and forth, it was really cool.”
Now he looks to use that information and the lessons he learned to make good on his second opportunity. That opportunity will come in this year’s final edition of Contender Series. He fights Jair Farias on week 10, which starts at 8pm EST this Tuesday on ESPN+.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 24:39.
