Athletes
Edson Barboza Is Still In Love With Fighting
Thirteen Years Into His UFC Career, The Brazilian Veteran Remains A Fixture In The Featherweight Rankings Heading Into His Main Event Matchup With Sodiq Yusuff This Weekend
Next month, Edson Barboza will celebrate the 13-year anniversary of his UFC debut against Mike Lullo at UFC 123, which was held at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
There are only two other fighters from that event still on the UFC’s active roster, Joe Lauzon and Matt Brown. The former hasn’t fought since earning a victory at home in Boston over Jonathan Pearce in the fall of 2019, while the latter is in the “pick my spots, don’t fight too often” stage of his career, most recently having bested fellow gray-beard Court McGee in May.
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Heck, the venue was demolished a little over three years ago, and yet this weekend, Barboza will stride to the Octagon once more, set to face off with Sodiq Yusuff in the main event of Saturday’s fight card at the UFC APEX, still every bit as in love with the sport and his job today as he was 13 years ago when he made that walk for the very first time.
“I was in the UFC when they didn’t have rankings,” Barboza said, smiling and shaking his head in faux amazement of how long he’s been competing at this level when we spoke on Tuesday evening. “The most important thing for me is that I still love every single second, and I still love training. Training is the hard part, but I still love to wake up, go to the gym, eat pretty clean, stay on my diet full time.
“I love it.”
Edson Barboza | Career Retrospective
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Edson Barboza | Career Retrospective
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It’s impossible to question the veracity of Barboza’s words when you think about what he’s done, who he’s faced, and where he still stands this far into his UFC and combat sports career, especially when you look at it in comparison to the prominent names that have stood as titans in the sport over the course of his time on the roster.
Jon Jones debuted a couple years before Barboza and currently sits atop the heavyweight division, but “Bones” has navigated multiple extended stretches on the sidelines while moving up a weight class in this latest chapter of his career.
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Khabib Nurmagomedov made his first appearance in the Octagon 14 months after Barboza’s maiden voyage into the UFC cage, bested him at UFC 219, and has been retired for just shy of three years now.
The entirety of Ronda Rousey’s professional MMA career lasted less than seven years — March 27, 2011 to December 30, 2016 — and includes a one-year sabbatical between her final two appearances.
And here’s Barboza, currently stationed at No. 13 in the featherweight rankings, coming off a nasty second-round knockout win over Billy Quarantillo in April, poised to serve as the first main event test for the ascending Yusuff on Saturday, every bit as committed to his craft today as he was when he bounded to the Octagon for the first time well over a decade ago.
Main Event Preview | UFC Fight Night: Yusuff vs Barboza
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Main Event Preview | UFC Fight Night: Yusuff vs Barboza
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So what’s his secret?
“I’m still in love because I was born a fighter; that’s it,” said the veteran when asked how he’s remained so smitten with a sport that can break your heart in so many ways. “I’m a fighter. I never did anything else in my life. I’m a fighter.
“From the first day of my life, I was a fighter, and I wanna be a fighter forever. It’s something inside, stronger than me.”
At this stage of his career, there are two very different elements that push the engaging all-action fighter to remain as competitive and dedicated as he is: his family and the scores of hungry, young athletes that pass through the doors of American Top Team where he trains.
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“I go the gym every day and compete with the lions at American Top Team,” began the Brazilian, who shifted his training to the South Florida fight team in 2018 after working for several years with Mark Henry and the “Iron Army” in New Jersey. “You need to be ready every single day.
“People think, ‘You’re going to fight 25 minutes now,’ but I was fighting in the gym, every day with the young lions, twice a day, and I still love every single second.
“(And) I want to make my kids proud — my son, my daughter — and my wife too, of course,” he added, joking that he was overjoyed when his eight-year-old son Noah changed his mind about wanting to be a fighter, opting for soccer instead. “That moves me more than anything, to make my kids say, ‘Wow, my dad is not only a good fighter, but a good man. He’s a nice guy, he’s respectful, he works super-hard.’
“That’s most important to me.”
Barboza is, without question, all of those things. This weekend, he’s also the veteran test standing in front of Yusuff, who returns for the first time in just over a year looking to take another step forward in the featherweight division.
Coming just a week after Bobby Green proved too daunting a test for ascending lightweight Grant Dawson, it’s easy and understandable to project the Brazilian in a comparable role and position as his fellow 37-year-old, but Barboza doesn’t see himself that way.
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“Of course, I’m a big test for the other fighters, but I don’t see myself like that,” when asked about serving as a measuring stick for Yusuff, who has gone 6-1 inside the Octagon since being a part of the Dana White’s Contender Series Class of 2018. “I’m still a top contender.
“I’m fighting him because he’s in front of me in the rankings. I’m trying to (get past him); that’s my goal. I’m trying to beat him, pass him in the ranks, to keep going forward and one day get my title shot.”
Whether this fight turns into a litmus test for “Super Sodiq” or another entry in the “Old Guy’s Still Got It” collection, it profiles, on paper, as a potential fire fight, as both men do their best work on the feet.
But after years of hearing opponents talk about how they want to test themselves in the standup game against him, Barboza knows better than to assume things will play out that way this weekend.
“All guys say, ‘I’m gonna fight on the feet against Edson,’ and everybody tries to take me down,” he said with a laugh when asked if he was happy to be paired off with another striker. “It’s an MMA fight — I’m always 100 percent looking at it as an MMA fight, and wherever this fight goes, I’m ready.”
Last time out in Kansas City, Barboza was returning for the first time in over a year, having been forced to withdraw from a fight for the first time in his career prior to stepping in with Quarantillo. When we spoke ahead of that contest, he was buzzing with the energy of a child on Christmas morning, eager to finally feel the UFC canvas under his feet again and desperate to hear the roar of the crowd as he made the walk to the cage.
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Things are different this time around — he’s no longer bouncing off the walls following the longest layoff of his career, and he’ll be walking out at the UFC APEX, not a packed house at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
But while the situations are different, the anticipation and focus remain the same.
“I always say, ‘They change the place, but the Octagon is the same. It’s just me, my opponent, and the referee,’” Barboza said with a laugh in regard to shifting back to the UFC’s Las Vegas headquarters this weekend. “I know it’s gonna be a war — I’m ready for that — and it’s gonna be a good night, and hopefully, God blesses me with one more day, one more win.
“I really still love this job — I still love to fight; love every single second,” he added. “I’m happy, and when I’m happy, I’m very dangerous.”
UFC Fight Night: Yusuff vs Barboza took place live from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 14, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
