Saturday’s contest stands as both a return home and a return to action for Gomis, who has endured a challenging year since his win over Ghemmouri last September.
Originally scheduled to return to action in February against Melsik Baghdasaryan, Gomis was forced to withdraw for undisclosed reasons, leading to him being booked into a clash with Dana White’s Contender Series grad Jean Silva at UFC 301 in Rio de Janeiro at the start of May.
When “Jaguar” went to step on the scales the morning before the fight, he came in a pound-and-a-half below the divisional limit while still wearing his shirt and shorts, but he was too ill to compete and the bout was scrapped, pushing his return to action back to this weekend, giving the 27-year-old plenty of time to reflect on his time in Brazil.
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“For me, it was very difficult. I feel like a survivor after that,” he said, smiling, the experience clearly in his rear-view mirror. “Now, nothing can scare me.”
While nothing may be able to scare him, his matchup with Brito this weekend is certainly something that should at least give the type of nervous butterflies that serve as harbingers of something big and eventual on the horizon.
Since losing his promotional debut at the outset of 2022, the 29-year-old Brazilian has posted five straight stoppage wins to carry himself to the brink of breaking into the Top 15 in the featherweight division. Though a couple of those victories came against over-matched, short-notice opponents, Brito’s run of success began with a 41-second finish of Andre Fili and currently features consecutive second-round stoppage wins over Jonathan Pearce and Jack Shore as the last two wins in the streak.
