Phumi Nkuta has landed the short-notice opportunity he’d been chasing, stepping in to face Adriano Moraes on Saturday after Mohammad Mokaev was forced out due to visa issues.
Nkuta, 11-0 as a professional, was selected by Most Valuable Promotions to replace Mokaev on the Rousey-Carano card at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., giving the undefeated prospect a high-profile showcase beyond the regional scene he’d long sought to move past.
Nkuta acknowledged the path to this moment hasn’t always been smooth. “I know for a lot of people there were frustrations,” he said, noting that UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard previously did not grant him the opportunity he wanted.
“But at a certain point, I just kind of stopped really caring about all that. I'm enjoying my life as a fighter in general. I love my day in, day out. I love the fact that I get to train hard and I get to be part of these camps for guys like Alex Perez, and then I get to go in there and do my thing myself. ... So for me, the frustration went away a long time ago. Am I relieved that I get this opportunity? Absolutely. But man, I was enjoying my life before I got this opportunity.”
Nkuta said support from his family helped keep the pressure off. “It's funny like, I was talking to my mom about this, and she was like, 'Look, you've already won so many belts. You've already gone further than what you thought you could make of this sport. Regardless, we're all so proud of you, and you've accomplished so much in this sport already,'” Nkuta recalled. “So for me, there's no pressure.”
A longtime fan of the sport, Nkuta is embracing his place on a card featuring names he once watched from afar. “I'm a fight fan first,” he said. “I was a fan watching Ngannou. I was a fan watching Ronda and all these people, Gina Carano back in the day. I remember tuning in when I was just a teenager watching Gina fight (Cris) Cyborg. I was in my dorm room, watching Ronda fight all these ladies and beating them all up. I've seen Nate Diaz fight in person, even him fighting Jim Miller back in the day. I was live in the crowd for that. So to be on a card with them, be put in a great spot, too, it's a dream come true.”
Nkuta believes his body of work speaks for itself. “There is something to be said about being undeniable, and I think we're finally at a point now to where it's like, you can say whatever you want about Phumi,” he said. “One, you gotta say he's good, and two, you gotta say he's an exciting fighter because you watched my last fights. You have to be either out of your mind or brain dead to say those, those fights weren't exciting.”
