John Gotti III wants two more fights before UFC consideration, focused on improvement

LINCOLN, R.I. – CES MMA 60 marked the first time John Gotti III went the distance in his professional career. In fact, it was the first time he had competed in a fight that lasted longer than four minutes. His five other fights combined for 6 minutes and 26 seconds of in-cage time.

On Friday night, facing his most experienced opponent to date, Marcos Lloreda, Gotti (5-0) overcame adversity for the first time in his MMA career. Lloreda (7-6) proved to be a stiff test and put the grandson of the infamous mobster in some tough spots. With the masses in the arena behind him, Gotti was able to rally and pull off a unanimous decision victory.

“To be honest, I’m not really happy with it,” Gotti told MMA Junkie. “The layoff kind of killed me. The last time I fought was May 31. It was a minute-and-thirty-seconds fight. Marcos had four fights in eight months. He has 13 fights against my four. It was a big step up in competition for me.

“I felt pretty rusty in there. It was a tough fight, too. I just had to dig deep and show my heart.”

While he wasn’t thrilled by his performance, Gotti sees some upside. He was able to utilize more of his skills and figure out what he needs to improve on going forward.

“They always come and joke, ‘Oh, the fight was so quick,’” Gotti said. “Well, now you got a three-round war out of me. Now you see what I’ve got inside. It’s good to silence those people.

“(I could improve on) my composure (and) listening to my coaches more. … I was worried about the little things that will be corrected with more time in the cage. I can’t take these layoffs.”

In the minutes leading up to the fight, UFC president Dana White sent out a tweet promoting Gotti’s bout on UFC Fight Pass. Gotti saw the tweet just moments before he was set to make the walk.

“No pressure, right?” Gotti said. “I’m sitting there getting my hands wrapped and I see that. Now if I lose, I’m going to feel like the biggest embarrassment on the planet. It was nice of him to do that and get that kind of exposure.”

Despite being on the UFC boss’ radar, Gotti isn’t interested in making the jump to the big leagues at this point in time. Improvement is the name of the game. In the 27-year-old welterweight’s mind, he’ll need to advance his skillset if he wants to hang in the big leagues.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do,” Gotti said. “Once I sharpen up these areas, we’ll be ready for that next step. The sky is the limit. We’ll just keep progressing.

“I want to definitely improve my game a little more. Maybe I’ll fight for a belt here. Give me one or two more fights and then we’ll make that next step.”

CES MMA 60 took place at Twin River Casino. The main card streamed on UFC Fight Pass.