Cub Swanson is healthy and plans to get some career momentum started against Daniel Pineda at UFC 256.
[autotag]Cub Swanson[/autotag] spoke to reporters ahead of UFC 256 during Thursday’s virtual media day.
Swanson (26-11 MMA, 11-7 UFC) discussed his featherweight matchup with Daniel Pineda (27-13 MMA, 4-4 UFC), fighting for the first time in 14 months after suffering an ACL injury, his recovery, hopes for a rematch with Shane Burgos, and more.
To hear from Swanson, you can watch the clip in the video above or the full interview below.
UFC 256 takes place Saturday at UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN2 and ESPN+.
Check out the latest episode of MMA Junkie Radio as “Gorgeous” George and “Goze” welcome Cub Swanson to the show.
Thursday’s episode of MMA Junkie Radio with “Gorgeous” George and “Goze” is here, and you can watch it live-streamed on SportsCastr beginning at noon ET (9 a.m. PT).
On Episode 3,106 of the show, the guys welcome UFC veteran [autotag]Cub Swanson[/autotag] to discuss his upcoming fight against Daniel Pineda at UFC 256 on Dec. 12. They’ll also look ahead to Thursday night’s Bellator 253 and Saturday’s UFC 255, as well as react to some of the latest news and notes. Tune in!
Stream or download this and all episodes of MMA Junkie Radio over at OmnyStudio. You can also catch it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and more. A new episode of the podcast is released every Monday and Thursday.
Cub Swanson says the UFC has been good to him over the years, but he also thinks the company has room to share more revenue with fighters.
[autotag]Cub Swanson[/autotag] has no beef with the UFC.
“The UFC does really generous things,” Swanson recently told MMA Junkie Radio. “They paid for my surgery. They took care of everything. They made sure I went to a great doctor, so I’m not going to bash them. They’ve been amazing to me.”
Swanson, however, is a veteran of the fight game who’s been at this since 2004. And while he’s still highly competitive, he knows at age 36 – and trying to return from a torn ACL and meniscus – that he only has so many years left in the sport.
That helps put into focus the issues surrounding UFC fighter pay, which have raged across headlines in recent weeks, with Jorge Masvidal and Jon Jones leading the way with demands that the UFC share more of the money their blood, sweat and tears produce.
“If I’m going to think about longevity, when I retire I want to make sure that I have something, you know?” Swanson said. “And I’ve been fortunate enough to have people around me who have made smart investments, and I’ll be OK, you know? But I’m not a millionaire. I think there’s a lot of room for growth, and I’d like to see that happen.”
[lawrence-related id=527299,526664,526489]
At the heart of the issue is the UFC’s pay scale. It’s been documented that fighters receive somewhere around 18 percent of company revenue depending on the year, whereas players in other major sports leagues – such as the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball – receive something close to a 50-50 revenue split with owners, give or take a few points in either direction.
Swanson understands that it took time for labor in those other sports to build up to that sort of revenue split, and he believes UFC fighters should make incremental progress toward that goal.
“I saw Masvidal speak up against the fighter pay that he’d like to get paid more, which, you know, everybody would,” Swanson said. “So all I really want to say on that is that, you know, in other professional sports there’s a big split, 50-50 roughly, depending on the sport and everything. And obviously they worked their way up to that, so I think if the UFC is profiting this much, I think we can come to terms on like a 25 percent, 30 percent and work our way up, and I think that’s beyond reasonable.”
To get to that position, fighters would need to form an association in order gain the degree of leverage to change the calculus in the UFC’s labor equation. For his part, Swanson says he knows a guy.
“I’ve always said I thought Brian Stann was a perfect leader to represent the fighters,” Swanson said. “He was just a very moral person, and he would stop and go, ‘Hey, guy’s, that’s not right.’ And you’d think about it and go, hey, man, I think it’s the military, and truly I think the fighters need a group of people that represent them, they will negotiate on everyone’s behalf and just make sure that we’re set up for long term. That’s all.”
With several new contenders emerging, Cub Swanson is looking forward to some fresh matchups upon his return.
[autotag]Cub Swanson[/autotag] is confident he will return to action in 2020.
Swanson (26-11 MMA, 11-7 UFC) tore his ACL and meniscus when taking part in the Quintet Ultra grappling competition last December and is edging closer to an octagon return.
He’s still not able to fully train, but Swanson is starting to hit the mats and is on track for a full recovery by fall.
“I had surgery a week before Christmas, so I’m over five months now and I’m doing pretty good,” Swanson told MMA Junkie Radio. “I still can’t run. There’s some certain things I can’t do. But I’ve been boxing. I do agility stuff. I can’t land on it very hard, and wrestling and grappling have been – some things I’m just starting to do, and I’m only doing them with smaller guys to make sure any kind of fall or a movement I didn’t expect isn’t going to be as impactful since they’re a little smaller.
“This whole thing has been a mental battle for me. I’m used to having injuries, but I’ve never had to deal with an injury that took this long.”
Swanson snapped a four-fight losing skid this past October, when he bounced highly-touted prospect Kron Gracie out of the ranks of the unbeaten in a “Fight of the Night” performance.
With several new contenders emerging in the featherweight division, Swanson is looking forward to some fresh matchups upon his return.
“I’ve been trying to promote the ‘Killer Cub 2020,’ because that’s been it for me,” Swanson said. “The whole year it’s going to take me to come back just to fight one time, so I wanted my fans to kind of gather around me. … I’ll be able to fight one time this year, and so I’m taking the opportunity to just get better. My goal is to be better than I’ve ever been. I’m a little older now (and I’ve) got a lot of experience. These younger kids coming up are talented, so it’s exciting. I want to get back in there and I want to be better than I’ve ever been.”
Ideally, Swanson would like to return in November, but the one thing he knows for certain is he’d like to compete before the end of the year.
“I’ve said it since day one: November,” Swanson said. “November is like my go-to. It could be sooner, it could be later. I don’t know, because I’m just starting to get to that point where I can train for real, and I don’t ever know how I’m going to be until I start. So once I start doing the hard work and I see how my body is adjusting and how much I’ve got to pull back, that could determine if the time changes. But I feel like November is a safe time. It’s 11 months post-surgery … It could be sooner, it could be later, but it should be the end of this year – the last quarter of this year.”
In the process of recovering from knee surgery, Cub Swanson is hoping to return by the year’s end.
Featherweight veteran [autotag]Cub Swanson[/autotag] is on the road to recovery and says he’s aiming for an octagon return before the year’s end.
Swanson took part in the Quintet Ultra grappling competition last December but, in what was meant to be a fun team competition, he ended up tearing his knee. He got his leg caught by Jake Shields and heard numerous pops, which resulted in a torn ACL and meniscus, and the longtime featherweight contender has been on the road to recovery ever since.
With the coronavirus outbreak suspending all UFC events indefinitely, Swanson (26-11 MMA, 11-7 UFC) won’t have too much ground to make up on his rivals, and he said he still hopes to fulfill his target of returning to action by November.
“I think the biggest thing about my comeback is I had a date of around November, and nothing’s stopping me from that,” said Swanson in an Instagram post. “This whole thing, it’s really challenged me to stay focused. I look at it on the bright side, like I’ve picked a great time to be injured, so I’m just focusing on being at home with my kids and enjoying my time, and knowing that I will be back by November. If there’s fights going on, I will be in them, I will be ready and I will be better than ever.”
Swanson snapped a four-fight losing skid in a much-needed win over Kron Gracie last October at UFC on ESPN+ 19, as he took the zero from the undefeated prospect’s record. Now he faces a different kind of fight as he battles his way back to fitness.
Thursday’s edition of MMA Junkie Radio with hosts “Gorgeous” George and “Goze” is here!
On Episode No. 3,020 of the podcast, the fellas react to the latest MMA news and notes. Surprise, surprise! [autotag]Conor McGregor[/autotag] comes up!
THE RUNDOWN
Coach John Kavanagh says, if it was up to him, McGregor would fight [autotag]Justin Gaethje[/autotag] next. But here’s the catch: The SBG Ireland head coach would like it to happen at welterweight, even though McGregor and Gaethje are regular lightweights. Does this make any sense?
[autotag]Tyron Woodley[/autotag] initially said he had no interest in fighting [autotag]Leon Edwards[/autotag], but as it turns out, the two of them will headline UFC London in March. Woodley’s manager, Abe Kawa, shed some light on what changed in an interview with MMA Junkie. What do we think of Woodley’s mindset here?
You’ll recall that [autotag]Mike Perry[/autotag] made headlines a couple of weeks back when he used the N-word during a Twitter spat with African-American actor Michael Jai White. In that same interview with MMA Junkie, Kawa, who manages Perry, offered some insight into Perry’s mind when it comes to using the slur. How do we feel about this?
Former UFC welterweight title challenger [autotag]Thiago Alves[/autotag] signed with Bare Knuckle FC. Good move for him?
UFC veteran [autotag]Cub Swanson[/autotag] joins the show for an interview to talk about his ongoing recovery from a torn ACL, how the UFC is taking care of him after the injury suffered during Quintet Ultra, when he’d like to return to the octagon, what he has left for his career, and more.
Stream or download this and all episodes of MMA Junkie Radio over at OmnyStudio, or check it out above. You can also catch it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and more. A new episode of the podcast is released every Monday and Thursday.
“The Korean Zombie”, Volkan Oezdemir and Charles Jourdain were among those with specific names in mind for their next fight after UFC on ESPN+ 23.
Earning wins in the UFC is certainly no easy task, but what comes next is often even more important: the post-fight callout.
So after Saturday’s UFC on ESPN+ 23 event in Busan, South Korea, who took advantage of their time on the mic? See below for this week’s Callout Collection – and just how realistic each one is.
* * * * *
First up, let’s take a look at the night’s prelim winners.
Alexandre Pantoja
Wants to fight:[autotag]Deiveson Figueiredo[/autotag] (for the UFC flyweight title)
The callout: “I think that I’m the next in line for the title. I’ve shown it many times. Maybe it wasn’t my day in that fight (at UFC 240) against Deiveson, but I know I can come back better. My team and I we went over that fight many times. We analyzed it and saw what I could improve. There is always room for improvement, and I’m striving for perfection. I really hope Deiveson wins, and we are able to run it back, this time for the title.”
The reality: The UFC’s flyweight division is wide open once again following Henry Cejudo’s decision to relinquish the 125-pound title, and the crowning of a new champion when Figueiredo and Joseph Benavidez meet on Feb. 29 will mark the beginning of a new era for the division.
Pantoja is certainly within touching distance of a title shot, but may actually be better off hoping for a Benavidez win, especially considering the recent form of the division’s other top contender, Jussier Formiga.
Formiga’s last outing saw him lose to Benavidez, which would seemingly give Pantoja a stronger case for the next shot if Benavidez captures the belt. But prior to that defeat, Formiga defeated Figueiredo which, you would assume, would make his case for the first shot more compelling if his fellow countryman wins the title in Norfolk.
