American UFC artist Luis Pena short MMA career came with no losses before marking a single loss against Mike Trizano, victor of The Ultimate Fighter 27. Right after his defeat, the budding artist revealed his ambition to drop down the weight lane.
The news has caused a fervor in MMA community. His decision to move to featherweight category seems like an unreasonable decision considering his 6’3” frame. However, Violent Bob Ross seems adamant to make the move.
According to the 25-year-old fighter,
“I am almost too comfortable at lightweight. Right now, it is almost too easy to make lightweight, I don’t suffer at all. The move down to featherweight was always going to happen regardless. We had always planned to go down to featherweight after this fight. People don’t understand I may be 6’3” but inside a camp there are days where I walk around under 160.”
He further added,
“I’m just naturally long and lanky like this. I am naturally built like this, I’m naturally this tall and super skinny. I can’t help it. If you saw my diet you would wonder how the hell I made 155 at 6’3”. I don’t even eat a crazy intense diet to maintain it. It is literally just naturally how I am. There are days were I make two meals for dinner for myself.”
Once the move is finalized, Pena would be a dominant artist in the featherweight division owning to his reach and height advantage over his opponents. While he has battled against fighters weighing nearly 20 pounds more than him, dealing with opponents with less weight would come as an advantage.
In fact, Luis Pena has already decided who he would be taking on in the featherweight division. Violent Bob Ross has set his eyes on a fight with Conor McGregor’s training partner, and long-time friend Artem Lobov.
“It just made sense for me. We are both coming off of losses. In my debut I beat one of his training partner out of [SBG Ireland]. Then there is the whole controversy between [American Kickboxing Academy] and SBG with the Khabib and McGregor stuff. I thought it just made sense and career-wise and to get the fans talking. I thought it would be a matchup a lot of people would talk about. Plus, I wouldn’t mind sending that guy back to whatever regional scene he belongs in.”
Though Pena views Lobov as a rightful candidate for his featherweight debut, he believes that he wouldn’t prove to be much of a challenge.
According to the rising prodigy,
“It would be really hard for him to get in and once he does I would take him down at will. It wouldn’t be a good matchup for him at all. I don’t see where he would be comfortable.”
He further added,
“It depends on what Artem you see. If he comes out gun blazing like he normally does, it could be [a quick finish]. No disrespect to him, I just don’t seem him as a threat, especially on the ground. I feel as though as soon as I want to take it to the mat it would be over.”
Despite Luis Pena facing a recent loss in his career, the American fighter is quite optimistic about his gym performance at AKA where notable fighters like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Daniel Cormier and Cain Velasquez train.
“It is one of those things, and you have to sit there and you can’t let yourself get into the mindset of ‘oh I’m training with Cain, I’m training with Khabib.’ You have to treat it as a normal person. Then outside of that you pick their brain of whatever you can and whatever advice you can get. Those guys have been in the game and at the highest level for the longest time.”
With champions like Nurmagomedov and Cormier training by his side, Pena exactly knows what it takes to reach UFC’s summit.
According to young artist,
“I kind of use it a blueprint, especially when ‘DC’ is in the room. We have our strength and conditioning workout and you go 30 minutes straight and every minute you are doing a different workout. I always make sure I would stagger my group with DC’s and do whatever the hell he did. I knew if I could do whatever the hell he could do then I could hang through any workout.”
Do you think Luis Pena would be able to stand out in the crowded featherweight division? Sound off your comments below.
