At 39-years old and with 47 professional MMA fights under his belt, Daniel Pineda has seen just about all you can see. He’s been offered all kinds of different style matchups, been in all kinds of different scraps. However, when his manager called with an offer to fight Darren Elkins, Pineda was immediately ready.
“My manager Jason [House] called me and said how do you feel about fighting this guy?” Pineda recalled. “I hadn’t even been training because I was injured – I just had that fight – for the whole month.”
There isn’t usually any hesitation when it comes to accepting a fight for “The Pit”, but this involved even less (if possible). The prospect of the fight excited him not just for his career, but for the spectacle that it could create.
“I said ‘done!” he said. “We got five weeks, we’re good. Let’s do it. It’s just such a good fight – like even I want to watch that fight. I’m going to be in it, but I want to watch that fight as a fan.”
The aggression that Elkins brings is welcomed by Pineda. He plans to meet that style with a like style in a fashion sure to end with absolute chaos.
“He comes forward, I come forward. There’s not going to be all this running around like a bunch of guys do. We’re just dogs. We’re going to meet in the middle and throw down,” Pineda explained. “It’s going to be a slug-fest. One of us is going to get caught.”
You can catch Pineda’s fight with Darren Elkins as part of the main card of UFC Vegas 99. The fight card begins at 4pm EST with the main card coming your way at 7pm EST. Both are available on ESPN+.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 2:11.
