For welterweight Anthony Ivy, his first bout of 2020 was a very different experience from start to finish than he’d dealt with over the course of his career.
From inability to train like he normally would due to the novel coronavirus lockdown, to making weight issues, to fighting in front of no crowd, Ivy’s first round loss to Christian Aguilera at UFC Fight Night in June was all-around a strange experience.
“Because of the coronavirus my training wasn’t as efficient as it is now,” Ivy told MMAWeekly.com. “It was really hard getting anything in. Then never in my whole entire career did I have to cut from close to 200 pounds to 170 pounds (in such a short time). I made weight, but was one of the toughest things I ever had to do, but I did it.
“Fighting in the open (at UFC Apex) with nobody there, it’s no different, it’s like training, nobody’s there but your training partners. You could hear the leather, the cage, the breathing, the foot stops, and everything else.”
For Ivy, the loss to Aguilera wasn’t cause for a massive overhaul. He knows what he did wrong in the fight and has already moved on from it.
“It wasn’t like a big loss, like I made a huge mistake, I was just got caught, and that’s all there is,” said Ivy. “As fighters, we have to understand we have to be ready at all times. We have to always stay ready, and if we don’t, this is the consequences we get for it. I think that’s the main thing that I took from it.”
On Saturday in Las Vegas, Ivy (8-3) will look to rebound when he faces Bryan Barberena (14-7) in a UFC Vegas 10 preliminary welterweight bout.
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“My main thing is go out there and just outwork him,” Ivy said of Barberena. “I don’t think anybody is ready for the work that I can introduce to this division. I work really, really hard to get to be where I’m at right now. That’s the main plan is to go out there and outwork him.”
With a goal of making the most of his time in the UFC, Ivy is looking at Sept. 12 as a good point to start building off.
“I’m really focused on this fight and I’m always focused on my future,” said Ivy. “My plan is to stay in the UFC and get into the Top 10. After this fight, God willing everything goes well, I want to be able to fight before December if I could.”
Anthony Ivy expects to outwork Bryan Barberena at UFC Vegas 10