A perennial contender at featherweight, Cub Swanson is entering UFC 256 in unfamiliar territory as an unranked fighter.
Swanson (26-11 MMA, 11-7 UFC) will return from a year-long layoff due to a knee injury when he faces Daniel Pineda on Dec. 12, and he has a new outlook on his career. Swanson, 37, admits that being unranked is liberating and has opened up plenty of possibilities for fantasy matchups that he’s thought about throughout his career.
Matchups that are scattered in between various weight classes.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about – because I’m not ranked right now that was kinda freeing actually,” Swanson told MMA Junkie Radio. “It was funny. I was actually talking to Dominick Cruz one day at the (UFC Performance Institute), and he was asking me about fights, this and that, and I was like I could only fight certain people because I was ranked. And he was like, ‘Tell them to unrank you.’ And I was like, what? I had never even thought of that. Like, who would ask for that? But at this point in my career it was a little freeing because I could fight anybody.
“It made me think of the possibilities of fighting at (135 pounds), fighting at 55. There are fights that I’ve always thought would be great like at 55, a friend of mine, Anthony Pettis, at 35, Urijah Faber. I could even fight Aldo at 35, so there’s a lot of possibilities. I could see that in the later part of my career they’d want to see some old school WEC matchups.”
Swanson has taken inspiration from former UFC featherweight king Jose Aldo, who has remained in form after proving doubters wrong and dropping down to 135 pounds to challenge for the title.
“I’ve never tried to make it that far down,” Swanson said of bantamweight. “I feel like I have gotten a little bit smaller in the last couple of years. Making (145) has actually gotten a little easier for me, but yeah it just kinda opened up the idea of me possibly doing a 35 fight, possibly doing 55. I’m open to the ideas.
“I think the biggest thing at this point is, for one, I got this fight ahead of me. I’m trying to get some momentum, and I’ve made a lot of changes in my style, brought some things back, introducing new things, so I’m just trying to get on rhythm of Cub 5.0 and then whatever happens after that, just fun fights at 55 or 45 or 35. I think that’s the biggest thing. I just want fights that are interesting to me.”
UFC’s Cub Swanson: Being unranked is freeing, open to fights at bantamweight and lightweight
