UFC 323’s Edson Barboza doesn’t regret featherweight move but ‘I look back and see how sick I was getting’
Edson Barboza has faced some of the best lightweights since his octagon debut 15 years ago, and still scored some goods wins as a featherweight, but only realized the damage the extra cut did to his body now that he’s back to his original weight class.
Barboza, who faces Jalin Turner this weekend at UFC 323 in Las Vegas, returned to the lightweight division in August for a fight with Drakkar Klose, one he lost via decision, and said his body is completely different now that he’s “only” dehydrating all the way down to 155 pounds.
“I couldn’t see it because I was so dedicated and doing everything right, I couldn’t realize how hard it actually was,” Barboza told MMA Fighting. “It felt like I was in camp the whole year, the entire year fighting physically. And after I decided to move up, my weight went up — not much to be honest, but a little. … I look back and see how sick I was getting, man. I was sick for an entire year. I would train and it felt like my body couldn’t recover. I was exhausted. It was a war the whole year, just crazy. I only realized that after I came back to 155.”
The American Top Team veteran said that losing 10 more pounds affected his training regime. Not only he was following a more restrict diet all year round, Barboza felt that his performance in the gym was diminished.
“I always scrambled a lot on the ground. I wasn’t afraid, I’d get up, fall, no problem,” Barboza said. “But when I cut down in weight I was weaker and I got scared because every time I scrambled I started feeling pain, I’d hurt my ribs. So I stopped scrambling. I used to tell myself, ‘maybe I’m not scrambling because my jiu-jitsu is better now, I don’t need it.’ And now I look at it and think, ‘no, I didn’t do it because I was scared of getting hurt.’ I was scared of getting hurt throughout the whole camp.”
Despite the struggles throughout his 4-4 run as a featherweight in the UFC beating Makwan Amirkhani, Shane Burgos, Billy Quarantillo and Sodiq Yusuff, Barboza said the experience was worth it.
“I was fighting the best at 155, then I dropped to 145, went back to fighting the best again, ranked fighters the whole time,” Barboza said. “I don’t regret any of it. It was a great experience. It was important for me to get to know myself better. Every time I made weight it was a struggle, but I made it.”
“My last three fights were two main events,” he continued. “We have this internal conflict about age and all that, but I’ve proven daily in training that I’m still competitive, still among the best. That’s the goal, man. While I’m fighting in the UFC, while I’m healthy, I’ll fight to be the best. The objective is to get into the rankings, climb the rankings — that’s always the goal. Nothing has changed.”
Barboza’s second opponent since going back to up to 155 pounds is Turner, who had a brief retirement after losing to Ignacio Bahamondes back in March. He was not on Barboza’s radar given the retirement, but the Brazilian wasn’t surprised to see him back in action so quickly.
“Once a fighter, always a fighter,” Barboza said. “I believe that even if in his mind he didn’t think he’d come back, that’s just who you are. I imagine that one day I’ll retire, I’ll say, ‘that’s it, I don’t want to do this anymore,’ but I’m sure that after some time I’ll go crazy wanting to fight again. I imagine it must be complicated.”
Close to turning 40 in January, Barboza is finally realizing he could also be on the tail end of his MMA career. He, however, feels at his best going into his 32nd fight inside the UFC cage.
“Can I be honest? I didn’t think about it up until some time ago but the finish line is getting closer, man,” Barboza said with a laugh. “There’s no way around it. The drive is the same, the desire is the same, but physically there comes a time when… But something I learned, and it makes me happy, is that the older we get, the smarter we get. We understand our bodies better, and today I can perform better than I did years ago. A few years ago I trained 14, 15 times a week, and now I train 10 times a week and I’m better than before. I believe you’ll still see Edson Barboza for a while.”
