This Saturday, Barcelos will finally get another chance to show fans what he’s made of at UFC Fight Night: Sandhagen vs Font in Nashville against Kyler Phillips, who showcased one of his best performances to date in February when he submitted Marcelo Rojo via triangle armbar.
Phillips was expected to take on Said Nurmagomedov, however, Nurmagomedov pulled out of the bout last month. While Barcelos is stepping in to take his place on only a couple weeks’ notice, the Brazilian has trained daily since his previous training camp in the spring and is more than ready to compete on Saturday night.
Not only that, but Barcelos has kept his original game plan for his bout against Johns and has only made a few tweaks with his coaches in preparation for Phillips. This means Barcelos has essentially had a three-month long training camp to get ready for Nashville.
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“We kept the same game plan we were going to use in the other fight. We’ve just improved it. That was basically it. A lot of people don’t know that. They thought I took the fight on a 15-day notice, but that wasn’t the case. We’ve known about it since my last fight, that we’d possibly come back in August, either on the 12th or 19th. It’ll take place a week before, on the fifth, but we were already prepared for it.
“Each fight is different. Each opponent is completely different. I respect all of them, but I get in there with the same confidence and the same goal, which is to finish the fight. It’ll be no difference in this fight. I’m coming for the finish. I’m ready for that. I hope my opponent is ready so we can put on a show.”
