LAS VEGAS – Almost one year to the day that Bryce Mitchell was twitching on the canvas, convulsing after a bomb of a punch from Josh Emmett, he’ll step back into the cage for the first time since.
Despite the terrifying nature of the knockout and its aftermath, Mitchell (16-3 MMA, 7-2 UFC) told reporters Wednesday ahead of UFC 310 at T-Mobile Arena that he’s in no way haunted by the circumstances of the last one.
“I’m very excited,” Mitchell said. “I’ve got all this energy pent up. I haven’t been this hungry in a long, long time. I’m happy to be here. I’m grateful to be here.”
Mitchell said much of his disappointment stemmed from the loss, not the damage sustained. He put himself in a self-imposed concussion protocol (though he did cheat one time), which consisted of taking time off besides a seminar he had scheduled. Once he returned to training, Mitchell took sparring lightly – and maintained that throughout camp.
“I was bummed out for a little while after the fight because it was such a bad loss,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t perform well at all. I’m pretty much just completely past it. I bear no negativity on the inside. I don’t care what nobody thinks about me. I know that I’m a great fighter. I’m here to prove it. I’m just so grateful to have the opportunity, especially the opportunity to be on the main card after such an embarrassing loss. The fact they put me on that main card, I’m about to go hard.”
There are no nightmares lingering of Emmett’s fist.
“If you’ve seen my last fight, I can take a hit,” Mitchell said. “I think I’ll be all right. he ain’t going to hit me no harder than that, brother, unless he brings a weapon.”
Regardless, Mitchell is fighting Kron Gracie (5-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC), a fighter known from grappling rather than striking. A jiu-jitsu specialist himself, Mitchell is thrilled by the stylistic matchup.
“I think the fight is going to go everywhere. I think he moves forward at such a consistently steady pace that inevitably the fight is going to go to the ground. It’s going to stand up. there are going to be kicks, punches, elbows, submission attempts, all this stuff, dude. It’s going to be nuts because this dude doesn’t take a step backward. Even the fights that he’s lost, hell, I thought he won some of the fights he’s lost. He doesn’t look backward. So he’s a real fighter and I respect him.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.
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