Fighting out of the famed Saekson Janjira camp in Plano, Edwin made his UFC debut this past March at UFC Fight Night 24 against one of MMA’s top prospects in Michael McDonald. taking that bout on just six days notice, Figueroa wasn’t given much of a chance against his highly-touted opponent but proved the naysayers wrong by taking “Mayday” through three rounds of the “toughest fight of his life” en route to ‘Fight of the Night’ recognition.
Now coming back with the benefit of a full fight camp, “El Feroz” will be taking on another tough opponent in Jason Reinhart, a 20-2 veteran dropping down to bantamweight for the first time and with wins over fighters like “The Mongolian Wolf” Tiequan Zhang.
Is Edwin prepared for such a challenge? The cheese might have slid off your cracker if you think he isn’t. We spoke to the Texas rep to get his thoughts on the matter just days before he takes the cage.
Interview – Edwin “El Feroz” Figueroa
Edwin, thanks for talking to us on the weekend of your fight. How are preparations going for this one?
Good. All the hard work is done. Everything else is easy compared to how hard I’ve been training. It feels like a vacation right. I just jumped in the sauna, sweat a little bit, and now I’m just relaxing and getting ready for the fight.
You’re coming off a ‘Fight of the Night’ performance against Michael McDonald in your UFC debut. What are your thoughts on that experience?
I feel super confident. In that last fight I think I was pretty much sent in to be a punching bag. I got the opportunity with only six days until the fight and I had to lose twenty-six pounds. Not only that but I went into the fight with a pulled groin. I’m a Muay Thai fighter so my kicks are a big deal for me so that really hampered me. I couldn’t kick like I wanted to, sprawling became kind of hard, and it was tough. McDonald is a good fighter. I think he’s ranked #10 in the world now so fighting him at my worst and giving him the hardest fight of his career boosts my confidence a little bit. Now I’ve had more time to prepare and more time to cut weight. I’m just ready to go in there now. This one’s more for me. I don’t really see this as me versus Jason. This is more for me to prove to myself that this is how I really fight and the man in the cage Sunday night is the real me.
What’s changed in your life since that your UFC debut?
My popularity seems to have gone up a little bit. I’m getting fan mail now and people emailing me telling me they are fans. I’m hearing from awesome people from places like London, Japan, Thailand, Colombia, Italy… all these places. I guess it’s blowing up. Being Hispanic, it’s awesome to represent our community also and I’ve been interviews with those outlets. It’s definitely been cool.
As far as everyday life though, nothing’s changed. My training is the same. I’ve got the perfect camp and I’m super-loyal to all my trainers. My stand-up coach is Saekson Janjira, a six-time champion in Muay Thai and a world-class trainer. For my ground, I’m working with Coach Yousef Alirezaei and everyone at Star Jiu Jitsu. He’s an Iranian Gold Medalist and I don’t think I can get any better ground game than the guys over there. Of course my conditioning and diet/nutrition coach is Marcos Rodriguez. Man he’s awesome. I went in last time on six-days notice and he really pushed me through. Now with this full camp and all those guys, I feel great! I notice that sometimes there may be more cameras during training and stuff like that but my coaches keep me grounded. I’m not high-and-mighty or anything like that.
You’ll be taking on a 20-2 opponent in Jason Reinhardt come Sunday at UFC LIVE on Versus 5. What are you hoping to show the MMA world in this fight?
I really want to show my striking and takedown defense. That’s where I messed up in my last fight and the areas where feel like I sold myself short. This time I’m going to fight my fight and show some clean striking and set up my attacks. If I do what I’m capable of doing, I’ll win this one on the feet.
I train to win and I’m going to fight like I train. If everything goes according to plan, this should end with a knockout.
Well we definitely look forward to seeing you in action this Sunday Edwin. Anybody you’d like to acknowledge before we go?
Yeah, I’d like to pretty much shout out to all my teammates who’ve helped me out. Guys like Faez Miraki and everyone at Star Jiu Jitsu – Jason House, Kenny McClure, Coach Yousef, and everyone else. At my Muay Thai gym, I want to thank all the guys also. Thanks to Keith Green, Charles Byrd, Yoli Cervantes, Billy Nguyen, JP Cole. Then there’s of course there’s everyone at Cross Fit. Everyone there is like one big family so big props to my trainer Marcus and everyone out there. I’m not going into this fight by myself. I’m taking all these people with me so it’ll feel just like another day at the gym. (editor’s note: If I butchered your name, please let me know and I will correct it.)
For all the fans in Texas, thanks for all the support and I’m going to do the best I can to make our whole scene proud. We’ve got a pretty close scene and all the fighters have gotten close fighting on all the same shows so I’m going to do my best to make Texas proud.
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