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James Vick Is Looking to Face Top-Ranked Names Following UFC 211

May 8, 2017 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
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James Vick spoke with MMAjunkie ehad of his fight with Marco Polo Reyes at UFC 211. Some highlights are below:

On not getting the buzz he feels he’s worth: “It’s been really annoying, to be honest with you. I made a big deal about this after my last fight, about – I’m 6-1 in the UFC, and no one knows who the (expletive) I am. And I get tired of hearing all these clowns talk about, ‘You need to promote yourself.’ I’ve recently just made a training week video, I’ve been doing Youtube posts, and I’ve been doing stuff at a Youtube channel and everything. But all of these people who are popular the way they are, they’re not self-promoting. It’s not that they’re self-promoting. They became basically overnight stars because of the UFC’s promotion. And maybe from there, people were interested in the contents they have on their social media or whatever. But that (expletive) wouldn’t have blown up like that before the UFC created them.”

On beating Abel Trujillo: “He dropped Tony Ferguson and took him down like three times, and then Khabib couldn’t finish him. Khabib dominated him, but I went in there and smoked that dude, and I’m thinking I’m not even in the (expletive) top 25 – or 20 at least.”

On building his skills: “At this point, I feel like my skillset is high enough that I can beat anybody in the world. I believe that. And I believe it’s coming. I know it’s going to come. After this fight, I see some changes on the horizon.”

On wanting to face some top-ranked names: “I just think a lot of these top guys, they won’t want to take chances. They want all of us up-and-coming killers to fight each other because they don’t want to have to fight us. There’s tons of guys in the top 15 that I would beat. And there’s a lot of guys that aren’t in the top 15 that would beat those guys, and they know it. Why would they take those risks? Not that they’re scared; they’re just not stupid, either.”

On facing Reyes: “I was hoping for a bigger-named guy, and I had called a few out and they weren’t even responding. Some of them, like Evan Dunham – we were supposed to fight before, so I was like, ‘Let’s make that fight.’ (UFC matchmaker) Sean Shelby said he hadn’t been medically released. And then (Michael) Chiesa was campaigning the whole time to fight on the Dallas card. He wanted to fight (ex-champ) Eddie Alvarez, but then Alvarez got booked. And then he acts like he doesn’t want to fight in that card anymore and gets the Kevin Lee fight. So, at that point, I was just trying to take whomever just to make sure I got on the card.”

On Reyes: “I think he’s a good opponent and he’s a good fighter. Everyone in the UFC is good. But I think that he’s tailor-made for me. I started off, when I was 19, early on boxing in Texas. And that’s all I fought, Mexican power-punching boxers just like him. I fought his style many times, and I’ve always done very well against them. I think he’s a good fighter, but I think literally everywhere we go I’m going to win. I think he’s a flatflooted power-punching Mexican boxers, and I’ve fought 15 of them before. And I’ve always won.”

article topics :

James Vick, UFC 211, Jeremy Thomas