Marlon Moraes Plans On Fighting Frequently In The UFC

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Marlon Moraes says he doesn’t plan to have a lot of downtime between fights in the UFC, as he wants to give himself a hard road to the top of the promotion. Here are highlights:

On working his way to the top: “I want to be part of the UFC, and I want to work my way up. I’m very happy working my way up. When things come so easy, sometimes you don’t appreciate them. I want to work for it. If one day, I become a star, I’m going to say I am, but I worked for it. I’m here because I deserve it.”

On pushing himself: “I knew it was going to be hard. The UFC is the toughest competition in the world in mixed martial arts. I was in WSOF, and I had a couple of tough fights, but not like UFC. UFC are the best fighters. I’ve had two fights, and two tough opponents. I knew it was going to be like that. I knew the UFC, you go out there with somebody, and you never know who is going to win. You’ve just got to be prepared. You’ve got to train hard and perform. With Assuncao, it was a close fight, and he won. With Dodson, it was a close fight, but I won. That’s it. Now I’m ready, and Saturday night, I’m pretty sure I’m going to put on a great performance.”

On fighting Aljamain Sterling this Saturday on short notice: “I was healthy. I’ve got to be honest with you, it’s always been my dream to be in the UFC because of that. There’s such a lot of opportunities. You can fight more than three times in a year, more than five if you can. When that opportunity came, I said, ‘Of course I want the fight.’ I’m healthy. I just fought. I’m in great shape. I’m just going to keep doing what I love. I’m going to keep sparring. Anyway, Saturday, I was going to be in the gym sparring, so now I’m here. I’m going to fight.”