Athletes
Garrett Armfield Simplified The Important Things
UFC Bantamweight Garrett Armfield Happily Steps Into Enemy Territory To Face Canadian Brad Katona On UFC 297 In Toronto.
It took Garrett Armfield upwards of 40 hours to get home to Missouri after his August fight in Singapore against Toshiomi Kazama, but he wouldn’t take back a thing from the trip to Asia.
“What an experience,” said Armfield, who scored a first-round TKO of Kazama to earn his first UFC victory on the trip, which got started a few days earlier than most fight weeks. And while he couldn’t get to sample local eats, just getting around to areas like “Little India” were unforgettable.
“The resort made it feel like you were at any typical resort, but the city was the experience,” Armfield said. “We went to an area called Little India, and that was the most interesting thing I've ever seen. It was an awesome experience. And then the fight went great too. So that made the plane trip back a little bit easier.”
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Most of us couldn’t imagine traveling for nearly two days and having anything ease that pain, but consider that Armfield has been training for over two decades, with the eventual goal to one day make it to the UFC. Well, not just make it, but to win. And after he lost his debut to David Onama in July of 2022, then saw bouts with Christian Rodriguez and Jose Johnson scrapped, it was quite a long wait to get that victory. So if he had to go across the world to get it, that was not a problem. And on the way back home, he got to exhale, reflect and take solace in the fact that his decision to move from Florida back to Missouri to train with the Trey Ogden-led Marathon MMA squad was a good one.
“It was the right call for me,” he said. “I like having the attention with there only being four UFC fighters at Marathon MMA. We get our coaches’ full, undivided attention, and I feel like I'm able to build a closer bond with my coaches that way. I feel like with the big gyms, they're running a business where they’ve got to put their energy towards what brings them the most money, and I'm not bringing in the most money right now. So it just makes sense. I completely get it. That's why I wanted to go to a smaller gym and get a little more attention and still have the high level of competition with my training partners. So I am getting great work and constantly learning new things, and it's also good to be able to slow things down and get a lot more technical work in.”
That doesn’t mean it was an easy decision to leave the renowned Kill Cliff FC team for Marathon, a camp garnering rave reviews that has taken in several fighters from Glory MMA.
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“I was scared to move,” Armfield admits. “I was there (at Kill Cliff FC) for four years and at about year three, I knew I wanted to move and kind of reset, but I was like, ‘I have the best fighters as training partners in the world. Why would I go to a small gym that nobody knows and that doesn't have a big name yet? And a big thing was, yeah, you have these great guys as your training partners, but do I have coaches sitting with me and coming up with a game plan or really watching your opponent's tapes? And the answer was no.”
Missouri it was, and so far so good for the 27-year-old bantamweight, which brings him to Saturday night and another international trip, albeit one a little bit shorter, as he faces two-time Ultimate Fighter winner Brad Katona in Katona’s native country of Canada. With this bout, and the previous one, when he faced an Asian fighter in Asia, it looks like Armfield is embracing being the man with the black hat on fight night.
Garrett Armfield Finishes Kazama by TKO | UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs The Korean Zombie
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Garrett Armfield Finishes Kazama by TKO | UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs The Korean Zombie
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“I like being the out-of-town guy,” he said. “I think it gives me an opportunity to gain a new fan base. I feel like Canadian fans really get into the sport, especially if they have a guy that they’re behind, and I've heard that you get the most fans from fighting a foreigner in their country, so fighting a Canadian in Canada is good for your popularity as a fighter. I'm looking forward to that. And also, I like that the UFC's sending me to enemy territory to go out and get the job done, and I got the job done last time. So I want to get the job done again and be like, ‘Hey, you can put me in anybody's backyard. I'm going to come out victorious.’”
And even if it takes another 40 hours for Armfield to get home after the fight, he won’t mind.
“I'm having the best time,” he said. “I feel like I’m living my dream, but kind of what the dream was when 12 and 13 years old. What would it look like just getting to train and then travel? It's extremely hard work, but it is so rewarding. And Dana White and Hunter Campbell are my bosses, but I'm essentially my own boss, too. I feel like I get to run my own little business and that's my life goal, to always be in charge of my own time. No one's telling me I got to be somewhere every second of the day, so I'm just so thankful to be able to have this sport and have this stage as an opportunity to make money and set myself up for the future and experience all that life has to offer. I soak up every single moment that I can because I think the scariest thing is that one day, I'm not going to have this anymore. And that's a harsh reality for everybody that they're all going to face, and you never know when that day's going to come, either. You could get an injury tomorrow and never fight again, or you could fight for the next 10 years. Be like Ricky Bobby (Laughs), live to 300.”
UFC 297: Strickland vs Du Plessis took place live from Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on January 20, 2024. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
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