“I’ve always fought guys who weighed 20-30 pounds more than me, and this time I will not be giving up any weight and that’s what this drop is all about,” he said. “I’m giving up height and weight on guys that are on the same level, skill wise, and now I’m evening the playing field. And I think there’s gonna be a lot of surprised people on Saturday night.”
The most surprised? He expects it to be Tyson Pedro.
“As soon as I can put a little bit of fear in him, doubt’s gonna start going all through his mind because once he gets past the first two or three minutes of that fight, his listing as the favorite will start to change, and the in-fight statistics will really start to change once I get comfortable in there and once he starts to get stressed,” said Hunsucker. “Because if he doesn’t lay me down quick, all the pressure’s on Tyson Pedro. Look who’s got the big story right now. I’m just showing up to have a good time and to show the work that I’ve done and to really showcase who I am as a fighter, which I’ve not been able to do yet.”
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It’s not been from a lack of trying, and while the results of his hard work haven’t shown up on his record, yet, the successes in life far outweigh those that have taken place on fight night, and that’s the most important thing to someone who will get to show people a little more of where he’s come from and where he’s going in the documentary, which has been in the works for the last year-and-a-half.
“It was a really cool experience, honestly,” said Hunsucker. “Those guys came out of nowhere and they followed me around for 14-15 months, and they filmed all kinds of parts of my life and they built a beautiful showcase of the last year-and-a-half of my life and the whirlwind of emotions from the time that I got the call from Mick to fight Tuivasa and make my UFC debut. It was humbling and it was amazing. It was a beautiful experience and I think that it helped me prepare for what’s next for me in life and the biggest fight of my life.”
Professionally, and on paper, Pedro may be the biggest fight of Hunsucker’s life, but in reality, just getting here was the biggest fight, and that’s something he wants his four kids, aged six months to 11, to know about their dad. But he’s not looking to be their hero, because in his eyes, they’re his heroes, writing in his official UFC bio, “My heroes are my children. They give me strength I never thought I had, and they inspire me daily.”
