Following a pair of huge wins in 2023, Marc-Andre Barriault was poised for a big step up in competition – a fight that could put him in the thick of things in the UFC’s middleweight division. He got that booking in the form of Michel Pereira. Despite what that booking meant for him, he unfortunately couldn’t make the date.
“Unfortunately, last October, three weeks before the fight against Michel Pereira, I had to pull out due to an old rib injury,” Barriault explained. “I tried to push through during the fight camp, but it was hard for me to just keep going. Physically and mentally, I was not at my best.”
While it was hard for the Canadian to walk away from the opportunity, the UFC quickly assured him that something big was in the works. Additionally, he didn’t love the style matchup of the original fight.
“It was the first time in my career that I had to pull out of a fight, but two weeks after I told the UFC about my injury, they asked me ‘you think you’ll be okay to fight in January?” he said. “I know [Pereira] is a big name. He’s a former top 15 welterweight… but it was kind of a 50/50 option for me because this guy is very awkward and it’s hard to mimic his style in the training room.”
Luckily for him, he got that new opportunity with Chris Curtis, the #14 ranked middleweight in the world. On top of that, he gets a chance to be on the first pay-per-view of the new year and in Canada. On top of loving the second chance at a big fight, he sees Curtis as a much easier option when it comes to gameplanning and getting to fight his kind of fight.
“My first thought was ‘oh yeah – I want this fight,” Barriault said. “That’s my ticket to the top 15. All of the guys in the top 15 are very good grapplers, very good wrestlers, very good strikers – but this guy, he’s a veteran. He’s been there for a long time, fought the best… He’s the ‘Actionman’. I’m the “Powerbar”. That’s going to be the best recipe for fireworks.
His fight with Chris Curtis will take place on the ESPN+ pay-per-view main card this Saturday. That portion of the card begins at 10pm EST.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 29:47.
