Athletes
Adam Fugitt Is Here To Cause Havoc
Oregon's Adam Fugitt Aims To Get His First UFC Victory When He Faces Yasaku Kinoshita At UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs Spivac
In his hometown of Eugene, Oregon, Adam Fugitt admits that there’s always “that slight chance of rain coming in,” but that hasn’t affected his mood leading up to his second UFC bout this weekend against Yusaku Kinoshita.
That’s what happens when you go from less than two weeks’ notice for your UFC debut to a training camp that has been underway since October. Of course, that comes with its own issues, but Fugitt is happy to show what he brings to the Octagon when he’s firing on all cylinders.
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“I just want to go back and show everybody what I can provide off of a full fight camp, a true training camp,” he said. “And I've got a little more than a full one, in my opinion. (Laughs) Four weeks’ notice is good enough for me. And eight weeks is definitely pushing it, and six weeks could be just right. But, oh man, three and a half months has been a little bit grueling. We went out at a different pace, but yeah, it's been interesting, for sure. I definitely want to get back in there and just show everybody what I've been working on.”
Fugitt’s first UFC fight wasn’t a disaster. He didn’t show up against unbeaten Michael Morales and get blown out or beaten up. He did get halted in the third round, but that was after giving the top prospect a fight over the previous two frames. In other words, with a full camp, Fugitt might have pulled the upset. That’s something positive to take away, even if Fugitt is critical of what eventually transpired.
“I look back and I see where I got caught in that fight and I see the punches I threw, and I was like, oh my God, I hit the old family motto in that moment and said, f**k it. (Laughs) And I went from a wrestling exchange, he got out, I lost the body lock and we square up and I should have just went for a reset. But I hit the family motto and threw a overextended, lazy cross. And he just did a little step back and put me right on my butt.”
It hurts the ego, it hurts the pay check, it hurts the record, but as far as UFC debuts go, Fugitt enjoyed being in the big show for the first time.
“Oh, it was definitely what I built it up to be,” he said. “It was great. The arena, Bruce Buffer announced my name, the pep talk in the back and with Dana White, it was definitely everything that I had hoped for and then some, so I definitely had a great first experience. Now we're going to the APEX, so it'll be a little different but, at the same time, it's another chance to show what I'm made of and put everything out there in the cage.”
The 34-year-old will be the underdog again, just like he was against Morales and when he faced Solomon Renfro a year ago. But that 43-second stoppage of Renfro in their LFA bout put him on the UFC’s radar, and after getting the call last summer, he plans on sticking around for a while, which means a win over another top up and comer in Kinoshita could be what the doctor ordered. And hey, a veteran approaching his mid-30s has a lot more life experience than a 22-year-old with seven fights, so in a tough fight, that kind of experience might show up, right?
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“I haven't thought about it in those terms,” said Fugitt. “I just look at it stylistically. I look at what he likes to do, what I like to do and I look at it in those terms and I say, you know what, man, I got this one. I got a bad style for this guy. I can create some problems for him. And that's what I plan on doing. I plan on being a menace and causing some havoc for him in there.”
UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs Spivac took place live from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 4, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
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