“Yeah. I don’t know if I would call it an appeal,” he laughs. “It sucks. You could be on point all training camp long, have all the best sparring sessions and then fight night comes and sometimes you just can’t put it together like you should. And that’s just the name of the game, really. Sometimes, I’m sure we all, as fighters, experience that to some degree or another. I know I’ve experienced it a handful of times and, in some cases, I’m fortunate enough to still pull through and get the win, and others I’ve lost.”
Over the course of a career in which he’s compiled a 16-7 pro record, there have been those ups and downs, but he’s never let the downs take him too low. And he’s never lost two in a row, which – if you subscribe to MMA math – bodes well for his Saturday return against Michal Figlak.
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And though returning to the UFC win column for the first time since he decisioned Dakota Bush in April of 2021 is a pretty solid motivation, he’s got more than that, as he and his wife Chelsea are expecting the arrival of their daughter in June. That’s made camp in Colorado tougher as the family is back in Illinois, but Hubbard is willing to make that sacrifice.
“I’m not going to lie, it has definitely added a lot more spark to my focus and motivation and all those sorts of things,” he said, “I’m taking the time away from my family and my pregnant wife, so I want to make sure it’s worth it. Honestly, in those moments when you’re training hard and things get hard and you want to take a little break, I just say to myself, my daughter needs you to be strong, and it does give me that little push I need to get me through to a strong finish.”
That’s in a fighting sense. In life, Hubbard has already made his mark, not just to his family, but to those around him, and some who don’t even know him personally but are inspired by his story.