Chris Curtis wasn’t expecting to be fighting this weekend, but one thing in particular drew him back in, he told media outlets ahead of this weekend’s UFC Vegas 90.
“I deeply enjoy money. I will do awful, awful things for money,” joked Curtis (31-10, 1NC) during this week’s UFC Vegas 90 media day. “When you offer to pay me— I love to fight, I love to fight more than anything else, I know I’ve told you guys before and I’ll say it again, I’d rather fight than f*ck, honestly.”
The love of money, and love of fighting, has Curtis stepping into a rematch with Brendan Allen, filling in for Marvin Vettori, who was forced to withdraw from the Fight Night card’s main event a few weeks back. The situation has him relating to ex-featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski.
“This is what I do. I deeply respect Volkanovski for coming out and saying it. He’s like ‘I love my family. I love my family, I love my kids, my wife, but when I don’t have a fight scheduled, I’m lost and confused.'” And that’s where Curtis can related. “I’m like guys, ‘I love my girl, I love my kids, I love both my boys, but when I don’t have a fight, I am very empty inside.’ And there is a hole that fighting fills that no other human being is going to fill.”
When it comes to growth between fights, without throwing any shade, Curtis doesn’t feel Allen is a drastically changed fighter from their 2021 meeting.
“I don’t think Brendan’s really changed much at all since we fought last, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I don’t think he needed to.” As Curtis put it, the pair are “two very large, skilled men fist fighting. Things happen.” In the pair’s first bout, Curtis picked up the finish by TKO, but he credits that to simply landing first. “You can do everything right and still lose. I don’t think he really had to adjust too much from the time we fought last time. I landed first.”
“Everybody improves with time the more you do something, but I don’t really think he had to make any giant adjustments. He was good then, he’s good now. I got there first. It’s a fist fight. These things happen.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 90 media day appearance by Chris Curtis above.
