Connor Matthews makes his official octagon debut at UFC Atlantic City this Saturday, where the Contender Series alum takes on Dennis Buzukja.
“The Controller,” with a 7-1 record as a pro, made two appearances on Dana White’s Contender Series and one on the UFC CEO‘s other show, Lookin’ for a Fight, and finally landed a spot in the promotion last year.
That second Contender Series bout, which saw him notch a win over the previously undefeated Jair Farias, was unquestionably critical to Matthews’ career.
“The stakes were high. That was my third fight at the time fighting in front of Dana, I was 31 years old, so if I didn’t get that win, I probably wasn’t even going to make it to the UFC,” Matthews told Cageside Press in an exclusive interview.
Of course, having that sort of high pressure experience had a silver lining.
“What it did for me was it gave me a little bit of experience dealing with high stakes. A championship fight, or a fight that was life or death almost for me, for my fighting career. It kind of helped me in that I had to deal with that stress while I was preparing to get in the cage for that fight. That’s just experience. Experience wins fights, experience is very important in this game, and that gave me a lot of experience.”
On top of that, Matthews also got an extra look at the UFC’s home base, the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. “I got to fight in the Apex two times, fighting in that big stage, it’s basically the UFC. There’s nothing different between Contenders and the UFC besides your gloves don’t say UFC on them.”
At UFC Atlantic City this Saturday, Connor Matthews has been paired up with Dennis Buzukja, who is 0-2 through two UFC fights to date.
“I look at this fight as, he’s a fighter whose back is against the wall. If he doesn’t get this fight, he’s probably going to get cut from the UFC,” explained Matthews. “So that’s dangerous to me. That’s somebody that’s going to be fighting like their life depends on it, just like I was for my two Contender Series fights, my last two fights for Dana White’s Lookin’ for a Fight and the Contender Series fight.”
Matthews expects Buzukja to be training “a little bit extra hard for this fight camp, to keep himself alive,” and has prepared accordingly. “He’s a tough kid, I’m not taking this fight lightly at all. I’m preparing for the best. We’re in the UFC, there’s no easy fights in the UFC.”
Watch our full interview with UFC Atlantic City featherweight Connor Matthews above.
