With UFC on ESPN+ 30 event postponed, Tristan Connelly thinks UFC will start back before other sports

Having planned to be in training for his bout versus Alex de Silva at UFC on ESPN+ 30 on April 11, welterweight Tristan Connelly is instead in quarantine in his native Canada as a precaution due to the covid-19 global pandemic.

Originally when news came of the spread of coronavirus to the United States, where Connelly had been training, it appeared maybe there was a chance he could still possibly compete, but entering the second week of March it became clear that not only was the UFC off for the time being, but so many other things would be as well.

“The first week of March, the first week in (Las) Vegas everything seemed good then, but when they started cancelling other sports I thought there’s probably a good chance that something’s going to happen to us,” Connelly told MMAWeekly.com. “We thought maybe the UFC was going to make closed-door events happen, but it just kept getting worse and worse from there.”

Connelly was ready to fight when things were cancelled. Since then his training hasn’t consisted of much more than a basic workout thanks to gyms being shuttered both in Las Vegas and in Canada.

“I was already ready to go,” said Connelly. “Basically since the beginning of January I’d been going to Vegas, training hard, came back (home), trained hard, going to Vegas again, trained hard, and was planning on riding that wave through the fight. Now I can’t train at all, so it feels all for nothing almost.

“I can go for runs, but that only does so much. I stretch a lot right now; that’s something I’m trying to work on right now my flexibility and my range of motion; that’s something I can work on all day on every day and never be satisfied with. Mostly it’s just to try not to put too much weight on.”

Knowing that being fight ready will require more than what he’s doing currently to stay in shape, Connelly is trying to figure out how to get in some semblance of a routine that will have him prepared to get into fight mode when things open up again.

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“I’ve got another week of quarantine, and then hopefully I can figure something out somewhere,” Connelly said.

“I believe (the UFC will) get things going sooner than other sports, and they’ll do as many fights as soon as they can, so there will be lots of opportunity to fight. It’s just now getting through these first few weeks and then figuring out how to train properly, how to get into fight shape with nowhere really train properly or having a lot of training partners – it’s going to be tricky.”

Having just made it to the UFC late last year, Connelly is eager to get back to action as soon as possible to continue to fulfill the goal he had been working his entire career to achieve.

“Honestly I wanted to fight four or five times this year; I was hoping to fight again last year after the last one; so I’m already way behind from where I want to be,” said Connelly. “The plan right now is to wait to see what will happen, stay as ready as I can, and as soon as it starts get going they’re going to want to have as many fights as they can.

“I think I’m in the position where as long as I can stay in shape and stay ready, when things start going, I’ll be ready to jump on whatever they need. I want to be ready to fight as much as possible.”