ABU DHABI – Bryce Mitchell is ready to challenge himself after a successful return to bantamweight.
Mitchell (18-3 MMA, 9-3 UFC) rallied from an early knockdown to outgrapple Said Nurmagomedov in Saturday’s UFC on ABC 9 featured prelim at Etihad Arena.
“Thug Nasty” admitted that Nurmagomedov (18-5 MMA, 7-4 UFC) gave him all he could handle.
“I mean, I didn’t expect to be in that much pain, to be honest,” Mitchell told MMA Junkie and other reporters during a post-fight news conference. “I knew it was going to be hard, but I didn’t think it was going to be that hard, to be honest. He’s tougher than I thought. Like everything in my body hurts.”
Mitchell doubts he has any serious injuries, but went as far as calling Nurmagomedov one of his hardest fights.
“I think that I have better cardio at ’35, and that was a really, really hard fight,” Mitchell said. “I think he was tired, too. He hurt me real bad in the first round, but I don’t even remember half of the first round. If you take away that one shot, maybe I wouldn’t be as jacked up as I am, I don’t know. But, it was a really, really hard fight. I wish it would have been more exciting for the fans, but I was just fighting for my life. I really was praying during the fight.
“Like, Jesus just keep me alive because the fight felt like death. I remember fighting for air, I remember getting hit and seeing lights, and I remember coach telling me in between rounds, ‘You can do this,’ and it was a really, really hard fight. I was literally praying, ‘Jesus just please keep me alive,’ and I was fighting with all my strength. Afterwards, I was overheated. I could barely move. I was so hot, and it was hard to breathe after the fight.”
So, how about taking on another Nurmagomedov in Umar Nurmagomedov? Even though Said and Umar are not related, Mitchell embraced the challenge when the suggestion was thrown his way.
“I think that would be a pretty damn good fight,” Mitchell said. “Hell, why not? I already fought one of them, let’s just fight all the Nurmagomedovs that there is.”
