Athletes
Jordan Wright’s Dreams Are Coming Together
At UFC Fight Night: Grasso vs Araújo, Jordan Wright Will Be Doing What He Loves By Competing In MMA Against Duško Todorović
Jordan Wright has always been a dreamer. He drew his inspiration to become a fighter from people like Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and the show Dragon Ball Z. He has always wanted to be someone that jumps off light posts and could fly through the sky, so what better path to take than being a fighter?
“I knew that there was some avenue I could go down, whether it was being a stuntman or an action movie guy or being a fighter,” Wright said. “Fighting is what really stuck with me. The peaceful warrior was always the character in any show that I liked to associate myself with, the guy that gets to smack a dude if he needed to but was very humble.”
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Wright steps into his bout with middleweight Duško Todorović at UFC Fight Night: Grasso vs Araújo looking to get back in the win column after dropping his last two fights against Bruno Silva and Marc-Andre Barriault. The 30-year-old feels better than ever a few days out from his fight and is ‘ready to do battle’.
He has brought in some new people to make sure he’s at his best for fight night.
“I've been working with some great people,” Wright said. “I have an amazing coach, an amazing team of coaches, a great mental coach, and I’m working on really being a lot more professional in my approach to certain things that I was kind of lacking in, that I was just more ignorant to in the past. As of now, things are going perfect.”
The 30-year-old said he doesn’t like to make excuses for the reasons he lost but acknowledged the struggles that he has faced leading up fights in the past. “The Beverly Hills Ninja” feels more energized this time around.
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“I'm always starving weeks out from my fights, and then fight week comes, I'm begging, just praying to have energy to get me out of bed,” Wright said. “I like doing the media stuff, but I dread it usually because I'm just like, 'Man, I just want to stay in bed all day because I have no energy left.' By the time fight time comes, in the past, I have been able to like to turn on that warrior spirit and just have that guide me, but it’s cool to have that sort of in me, as well as my body's performing at its best right now, so I don't have to completely rely on that.”
Of course, no one likes to lose, but it’s a part of the process of becoming the best version of yourself inside and outside of the Octagon. Wright is happy that he went through those experiences, because if he never would’ve gone through them, he wouldn’t have grown from them.
But now, it’s full steam ahead to get back into the win column. Being able to be more focused and having the proper nutrition has led Wright to feeling that things will go his way on Saturday. Having that mindset means not focusing too much on what his opponent brings to the table, but the areas that he’ll shine in.
“I try not to get too lost in what the other guy does, because, at the end of the day, that might not be the same guy that you end up fighting on fight night,” Wright said. “I know he's a taekwondo guy, Brazilian jiu-jitsu guy. He likes to clinch a lot and so do I, so that should be pretty cool. I don't think he's fought a guy that can clinch like I can, but I expect to finish him like the rest of them. If it goes through a decision, whatever, but I expect to finish him.”
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Wright believes that the person that first stepped into the Octagon during his debut two years ago is a person of the past and isn’t the same person as the one who is fighting this weekend. Even though he is coming into the fight needing a win, there isn’t any pressure. He’s doing the thing he always dreamed of.
“There really shouldn't be any pressure,” Wright said. “This should be fun. I know that money is on the line, and I have a family and I have bills to pay and all those things, but if I just wanted to live a life where I worried about paying bills, I would've gotten a regular job. I'm doing exactly what I love.”
UFC Fight Night: Grasso vs Araujo took place live from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 15, 2022. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
