Vicente Luque’s days of flying under the radar ended in February.
Stationed on the main card of the first UFC event to air on ESPN, the emerging welterweight who had quietly amassed three straight wins and seven victories in his previous eight fights, all by stoppage, exploded into the greater MMA consciousness in an all-action pairing with Bryan Barberena. Projected to be a hard-fought scrap with the potential to be a barnburner, the duo exceeded all expectations, combining to deliver the first true Fight of the Year contender of 2019.
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“I hit him with the best shots I have — harder punches than ones that have knocked out other people — and he just kept on coming,” Luque said of Barberena, speaking with Sporting News on Wednesday. “He showed his toughness, he showed he was a guy that can take it and give it right back.
“At the same time, it was a challenge to me, so I kind of got motivated and that’s why the fight became the fight that it did because he was showing that he could take it and I wanted to test how much more he could take. He was hitting me back and I wanted to go in there, show that I could be the tougher guy and get that win.”
After a back-and-forth opening 10 minutes, the pair continued to go shot-for-shot early in the third, before Luque started to pull away down the stretch. With just a handful of seconds remaining on the clock, the Brazilian finally felled Barberena for good, pushing his winning streak to four and keeping his run of consecutive stoppage victories intact.
In addition to serving as his introduction to a wide audience, the breakthrough performance and late stoppage over “Bam Bam” proved to be the victory he needed in order to finally secure a matchup with a Top 15 opponent. Following a collection of tough assignments against unranked opponents and promotional newcomers, the 27-year-old was paired off with Top 15 fixture Neil Magny in the co-main event of this weekend’s inaugural UFC appearance in Rochester, New York.
It was a bout that had the potential to propel Luque into the thick of the title chase and set him up for even bigger opportunities in the second half of the year, but on the day he left South Florida for the host city in Western New York, news broke that Magny had been pulled from the fight.
“A big thing for me was to fight a guy in the Top 15 and I was excited for this fight, so to not fight Neil is a bummer,” said Luque, who will instead welcome regional vet Derrick Krantz to the Octagon for the first time on Saturday. “But the thing I was most worried about was that I was not going to fight. I wouldn’t have been happy with that because I put so much into this camp and I feel so ready and I really want to fight.
“Once they got me a fight, I was relieved,” he added. “It’s not a Top 15 guy, it’s not the guy I wanted to fight, but I’m ready for a fight and I love fighting, so it’s still going to be a great night. There are no frustration, no worries about it not being a Top 15 guy.”
Some might view Luque’s comments as lip service — the thing you’re supposed to say in a situation like this — but the reality is that the laid back Brazilian genuinely isn’t stressed about the sudden shift in opponents and missing out on his first opportunity to face a ranked fighter, largely because his road to this point was far from traditional.
Prior to competing on Season 21 of The Ultimate Fighter as a member of the Blackzilians, Luque had gone 7-4-1 in a dozen fights, then dropped his bout with American Top Team’s Michael Graves at the show’s finale.
“My path all to here has never been the easy path,” said Luque, who has gone 8-1 in his nine fights since dropping his promotional debut, registering five knockouts and three submissions. “When I started fighting in Brazil, I made some bad choices, some bad fight decisions, so I had some losses in the beginning of my career.
“At the same time, I’m a much better fighter and a much tougher fighter because of those decisions. I understand that sometimes the path is not the one we want, but it’s the one that we need. That’s why I have the mindset I have right now.
"If this is happening, it’s for a reason and I am ready to go,” he continued. “I can go out there, do my best and show everybody what I’m capable of doing. Why be upset because I’m not fighting a Top 15 guy? I’m still going to go out there and impress people.”
While opponent changes can often require major on-the-fly game plan shifts, the move from Magny to the 31-year-old Krantz doesn’t really force Luque to make any real adjustments. If anything, it’s a better tactical matchup for the talented finisher.
“Strategically, it’s not much of a difference,” Luque said of the shift to facing Krantz, who arrives in the UFC on a four-fight winning streak and sporting a 24-10 record overall. “He’s a well-rounded guy with heavy hands, but mostly he’s a wrestler and I see him coming to wrestle. In the beginning, he’s going to try to throw big shots, but I see him eventually coming to wrestle, and that’s what I expected from Neil as well.
“Physically, it’s a big change either,” he added. “He’s more my height and that gives me a different way to move around and work my distance. But I’m used to fighting guys Derrick’s size, so it’s not a big deal.”
For Luque, every bout is an opportunity to grow, improve and learn a little bit more about himself, and if it takes two more fights or 10 more fights for him to prove he’s one of the best welterweights in the world, the dangerous finisher with the easy-going nature is content to keep delivering electric performances, piling up victories and working his way up the divisional ladder one step at a time.
“I had (a lot of) growth because of my last fight,” he said of his epic clash with Barberena in February. “I could have strategically done things to have an easier fight or done things to where I could have dominated more, so that was a lesson I had — to look at the strategic side a little more.
“The other thing I learned is that there are no limits to how much you can push. I pushed myself much more than I thought I could in that fight. I was in bad spots some times, but I kept on pushing, kept looking for the win and that was a big lesson. Now I know it doesn’t matter what position you put me in — I’m still going to fight, still going to look for that win.
“And I’m okay with taking my time (moving up the rankings),” he added. “I know that things happen for a reason and I’m just going to go out there on Saturday and showcase my skills.