Chris Curtis was a little disappointed at UFC 282.
This past Saturday, Curtis delivered another exceptional performance in the octagon, knocking out Joaquin Buckley in the second round, and earning a “Performance of the Night” bonus. Securing a big win and an extra $50,000 would normally constitute a good night at the office for anyone, but “Action Man” admits he hoped for more.
“It was good,” Curtis told The MMA Hour. “This is going to sound like the most weird thing to say. But for me, I’m happy with the outcome, happy with the performance, we did everything we said we were going to do, the fight kind of went how we saw it going. But going into it, Joaquin and I had talked about getting ‘Fight of the Year’ – I was excited, because in my head, I was thinking there’s going to be this knock-down, drag-out war of attrition, we’re going to leave bloody and beat up, and that wasn’t it. And I was just like, ‘Uh.’ I’m happy to win, but you have this weird feeling where I wanted more.
“I’ve been searching for that fight since I’ve started fighting, and I still haven’t gotten it. I’m just like, ‘Ugh, so close.’ And I thought that would be it, because he’s a warrior. He came to fight. It’s just one of those things, I wanted one of those fights where I really felt in danger. I wanted it to be a fight where I was like, ‘Shoot, I think I’m in danger,’ and have to dig deep.
“I got into fighting because of f****** cartoons and video games, so I think I have a weird perception of what I’m f****** doing here anyway. But I was really hoping for that. So I’m sad that didn’t come to pass, but I got out with my health and a nice paycheck, so I’ll take it.”
A professional since 2009, Curtis has an uneven start to his MMA career. But he has looked sensational since 2020, going 9-1 during that time and rising to the No. 14 spot in the UFC’s middleweight rankings. It’s a big turnaround for the man who dropped three in a row in the PFL, and one he attributes to finally getting with the right gym.
“I have a lot of good people behind me, and I happen to finally just fall into — I moved to Xtreme Couture and I found the coaches in the gym that made me better at fighting,” Curtis said. “They’ve made me a better fighter overall, and this is the first time I can say I’m truly in a world-class gym, with world-class coaches and world-class training partners. Even in my 30s, I grew fast. I still had room to grow, I’m still growing now, I’m still learning. I’m getting better every day, and I’m getting better at fixing things I thought I was good at. I’m just in the right place with the right people, and I get to do what I love, so why the hell not?
“I love training, I love fighting, I’m serious. You won’t find too many people who love fighting way more than I do. I’m healthy, I’m still relatively young — 35 years, middle age there, so I’ve still got a few years in me. Why not enjoy it? Why not kick ass, keep going, as far as we can go, and then I’ll have cool stories to tell when I’m old. Officially old.”
At 35, “officially old” is coming quickly for Curtis, who hasn’t been wasting any time. Since joining the UFC in November of 2021, he has already fought five times inside the octagon, and he’s not looking to slow down. Next, he hopes to lock horns with fellow UFC 282 bonus winner.
“Just from even this weekend and everything going on at middleweight, I would be surprised if it wasn’t Dricus Du Plessis,” Curtis said. “We were supposed to fight once, before this weekend we were ranked one apart, I think, he should get a little bump, top-10 maybe, but I’ll be, maybe, 14, so I’m surprised if that doesn’t happen. I think it’s a really fun fight still. It sucked that it got cancelled before because I got hurt, but I think it’s still a really fun fight. Dricus is a f***** unit. That’s an athletic South African man right there. So I’d be shocked if that wasn’t it. And if it is it, I’d love to get a main event on a Fight Night card. I want a five-round fight with him. That would be crazy.”