Ah, those big things again. Until the fight with Azaitar wasn’t there anymore.
“The day of weigh-ins, I got two pounds to cut, my coach Matt Arroyo walks in and he’s just like, ‘Ottman’s out.’ I couldn’t believe it and it hit me like a ton of bricks. There were all these cancellations, I was out in Abu Dhabi, this guy gets pulled, but my coach and my team made sure that I cut that last two pounds and weighed in.”
Frevola weighed in without an opponent and hit his mark. Meanwhile, his team tried to keep his spirits up, telling him that on a card featuring McGregor, Poirier, Dan Hooker, and Michael Chandler, as well as a third lightweight bout between Arman Tsarukyan and Nasrat Haqparast, he could very well get a fight if someone fell out like Azaitar did.
“They were encouraging me that I would be a replacement fighter – they said, ‘Dustin Poirier could fall out and you could be fighting McGregor,’” Frevola laughs, knowing that his squad meant well. “There were a bunch of other ’55ers on the card, so they made sure that I made the weight and they’re telling me I could fight Dan Hooker or Michael Chandler. So I was holding hopes on stepping in. And then probably the toughest guy who’s the most not-known guy on the card – Arman – his opponent falls out.”
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Haqparast withdrew from the bout due to illness, and with Tsarukyan missing an opponent as well, the fight with Frevola was made, even with Tsarukyan missing weight to throw another wrench in the works. But the New Yorker didn’t care, and though it didn’t go the way “The SteamRolla” hoped it would, he has no regrets about taking the bout.