From social media to blogs to the more sternly named, yet essentially the same, “websites”, the internet has been intertwined with mixed martial arts for the vast majority of the sport’s life. The internet is where fans of MMA connected, and promoters promoted.
It’s where fights from across the globe or in Floridian backyards were shared, and it’s where Chris Camozzi earned his return ticket to the UFC.
Camozzi will take on Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza tomorrow night at UFC on FOX 15. It’s a rematch that few people are enthused about, but it’s a rematch that had to happen for Souza to receive a paycheck and for the UFC to keep one of it’s top stars on one of it’s most important cards of early 2015.
After Yoel Romero, Souza’s original opponent, pulled out of the fight a week out, Joe Silva and the UFC were scrambling for a new opponent, and they found their solution in the most improbable place.
“I got to give the Underground, MixedMartialArts.com, a shoutout,” Camozzi said in a pre-fight scrum yesterday. “Right when I saw Romero was out, I posted on there. They were talking about [how] nobody would fight Jacare. I happened to post on there, and say that I would fight Jacare if I had the chance. “It turns out that Joe Silva reads the Underground because the next morning I had a text from him saying ‘were you serious about fighting Jacare again?'”
It didn’t take long for Camozzi, who was last seen fighting in March outside of the UFC, to respond to Silva and accept the fight. Being a heavy underdog, Camozzi is more than aware of the expectation of his fight for tomorrow night.
“I’ve got everything to gain, Jacare has everything to lose,” said Camozzi. “I’ve been fighting for a long time now. Taking this one on short notice like I did before is all matching up for me to change the outcome of the first one so [it’s] a chance of redemption for me.”
As far as that chance of redemption goes, Camozzi is confident in his ability to make good use of that chance because of how different he is today as a mixed martial artist.
“I’m ten times the fight I was a couple years ago,” said Camozzi. “I’ve been in the sport ten years, but even a couple years ago, I still felt like I was trying to find my way. Now I’ve switched up a lot of things in my camp, our camp Factory X in Denver. We’ve got tons and tons of big guys that are fighting on the high level that are pushing me everyday.”
“I used to be the best guy in the gym, and now I have to fight for that. We go at it everyday in the gym, and it just builds me as a fighter. It makes me have to push hard in training and sometimes overcome adversity, even in the gym.”