Six-time national Muay Thai champion and Fury FC amateur bantamweight champion Oliver Jimenez is set to make his MMA debut at Fury FC 60 on UFC FIGHT PASS.
With a style comparable to Max Holloway and Petr Yan, Jimenez is already having trouble finding fights in Texas without ever having fought in a cage professionally. His fear is that with a performance that can’t be anything less than dominant, on top of his existing reputation, he’ll already have scared off everybody in the region.
“I don’t think there’s anybody in Houston that gives me trouble with striking,” Jimenez said. “I’ve been all over the country fighting in different tournaments, and the tournament style has helped me because you never know the kind of fighter you’re going to get so you have to adjust. I feel like that has given me more experience than most MMA fighters. They’re used to fighting once every three months or something and I’m used to fighting sometimes three times in one weekend. And they’re all different styles, so I have to adjust to everything.”
Uh oh!!!
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The Mexican-born bantamweight didn’t actually have his sights set on MMA in the beginning. Despite falling in love with combat sports through TUF Latin America, it took a worldwide pandemic for him to even pursue a professional career in MMA. Now that he’s here, he’s planning to take over.
“I was supposed to go pro two years ago before COVID hit,” Jimenez said. “I was supposed to do a deal with GLORY and then COVID happened and there was nothing. I was bored and decided to try MMA and here we are.”
Jimenez explains that while Mexico has always been more of a boxing country, it’s fighters like himself that give his homeland something to watch.
“Mexican fans are going to support a Mexican fighter if he’s good,” Jimenez said. “Once they start seeing somebody who’s good, they tend to get behind him like Brandon Moreno. Since he became champion, a lot more Mexican fans started getting into MMA. Now we’re getting other Mexican fighters like Adrian Yanez, he’s starting to make a lot of noise and getting a lot of support from the Mexican people, too.”
Brandon Moreno at flyweight, Jimenez and Yanez at bantamweight, Yair Rodriguez at featherweight. It’s all starting to look like the main card of a UFC Mexico Fight Night.
Catch the professional debut of Oliver Jimenez at Fury FC 60, ONLY on UFC FIGHT PASS!
