Following a win over Jarel Askew at BTC 8 in November of 2019, lightweight Scott Hudson was keen to keep his momentum going into 2020 when the novel coronavirus put a serious halt to those plans.
After turning down a potential fight at the start of the year, Hudson was unable to secure a bout until almost exactly a year after he had last fought.
“I had an opportunity to fight in early 2020 and I didn’t take it because I was kind of waiting on a bigger fight, a call from a bigger organization, but I had no idea what was coming,” Hudson told MMAWeekly.com. “In a way I regret it, but at the same time it is what it is and you can only control what you can control.
“I’ve been doing my best to accomplish the things that I want to accomplish this year despite the circumstances of the pandemic. I would have liked to have been more active, but at the same time there are people in worse of positions than I am. I’m happy to get back in there and get back my career back rolling.”
While Hudson was able to train during the last year, he feels like he won’t truly know where his game is at until after he’s had a fight.
“It’s kind of hard to tell (where I’m at with my game exactly),” said Hudson. “Competing is the best way to get a gauge of your skills and see where you’re at fight to fight. I feel I’m a more experienced, more polished fighter, but the only way that’s going to show for sure is on November 11.
“I feel like all of my skills and everything I have been working on will show up on this fight. I feel better, but it’s one thing to feel it and another thing to actually go out there and show it, and that’s what I plan to do.”
On Wednesday in Atlanta, Hudson (11-5-1) will look to keep his winning ways going as he takes on D’Juan Owens (18-15-1) in a first round bout of the lightweight grand prix at XFC 43.
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“D’Juan is a very experienced fighter,” Hudson said. “He’s got some good wins. He’s fought all over the world. It’s a good litmus test for me.
“I feel like I’m the favorite going into the fight. I feel like I have the skills to take him out. He’s well-rounded everywhere, but I feel like I’ll be able to thwart his offense enough to get him frustrated and make openings for me to do damage to finish the fight.”
With a win over Owens, Hudson advances in the lightweight tournament and set himself towards a more secure 2021.
My contract with the XFC has me three fights for a year, so they’re planning to move forward with all their events, so I think that’s going to take me through the end of 2021, and then we’ll see how this plays out,” said Hudson.
“Hopefully I’m coming out of 2021 as the XFC lightweight champion. That takes a lot of the guess work out of it. I don’t have to think about it. All I have to do is show up and take these guys in the tournament out.”
Scott Hudson feels that he’s the favorite heading into XFC 43 Grand Prix opening round
