“When I started, I wanted to be in the UFC; I wanted to be a UFC fighter,” he said. “It’s always been my be-all, end-all goal and I’m not gonna do anything that’s gonna distract from me getting to this goal. Since then, I was just pushing forward. Everything I did was with a singularity of purpose. Everything I do was to get to the UFC and be a UFC fighter.”
Curtis lost that debut via split decision to Brandon Pinkston. It wouldn’t be his last setback, but there were far more triumphs than defeats as he worked his way through the regional circuit. By June 2018, he was 18-5 and he received an invite to compete on the second season of Dana White’s Contender Series.
He won, knocking out Sean Lally in the third round. He didn’t get a UFC contract and he retired from the sport. By January 2019, he was back, but after two wins, he lost three straight and walked away again, prompting a heart-to-heart talk with Kristopher.
“What are we gonna do?” asked Kristopher.
“I’ll do something else,” Curtis responded.
“But what?”
“You’re right. What am I gonna do?”
Curtis laughs about it now, but at the time, it was no laughing matter. A lot of blood, sweat and tears had gone into his fighting career, not to mention the sacrifices he made to chase that dream.
“Honestly, I stopped watching the UFC fights for a long time,” he said. “I refused to watch it because it killed me. You see guys come in with four fights, you see guys on the Contender Series win on decisions and get signed, guys miss weight and get signed. I knocked a guy out with a hook kick, didn’t get signed. So you see these guys fighting, and it kills you. It absolutely kills you.”
But what was Curtis going to do? He was a fighter. Fighters fight.
“This is what I’ve done for all these years,” he said. “I haven’t worked a regular job; all I’ve done is train. Train, train, train, be a professional, day in and day out, seven days a week.”
Curtis returned in January 2020 with a fourth-round stoppage of Darren Smith Jr. The goal, as always, was unchanged.