Bobby “Nashty” Nash looks to continue his winning ways at XFC 44
On November 11, 2020, XFC made its U.S. debut and debuted their format, which included a welterweight tournament to crown a champion. In their search to find stars to make a name off of, XFC brought in several impressive fighters in the welterweight division. One of those fighters is Bobby “Nashty” Nash, a UFC veteran.
For Nash, it was a chance to shine again a big stage, as XFC airs on NBC Sports. Nash didn’t shine in the UFC as he imagined he would, but his XFC debut couldn’t have gone better as he knocked out Spencer Jebb in the first round. It was a performance, Nash says he was very pleased with.
“I am actually very happy with my performance because it was the first time, I really landed a clean right hand. Most of my knockouts come with my left hook. Landing the right hand was really nice, my striking was good. You have to analyze the fight and there were a few things I wasn’t happy with; I sometimes dropped my hands and I really wasn’t checking leg kicks which I wasn’t too happy with. Other than that, I thought I did pretty good.”
Nash’s performance was pretty good indeed. Especially after considering it was only his second fight in three years. Each fight was spread out a year and a half as well. Though fighters typically hate long layoffs, however, Nash believes the layoffs allowed him to make the necessary changes he needed to make to succeed.
“Oh, without a doubt. That last time I fought in the UFC was three years ago. So after my UFC fight, I had a year and a half layoff then I took a fight then I had another year and a half layoff then I had this fight. I really let myself and my body really heal. I grew and matured, that whole time, its not like I was sitting on my ass, I was in the gym all the time. In that long stretch of time, I was training, working my hands, working my strength, my jiu jitsu, working everything. You can see in the fight I am getting so much better. The layoffs were wonderful.”
However, though he found the layoffs to be useful, they weren’t always intentional. Such as the layoff before his XFC debut. Before it, he was set to face current UFC fighter Jeremiah Wells for CFFC gold. However, due to COVID, that fight was canceled.
“So what happened with that, I was set to fight for CFFC, against a really tough opponent in Jeremiah Wells for a title fight. I get a call from my manager, like hey, bad news and I was like what bad news? Jeremiah Wells tested positive for COVID-19, the fight is off, stop cutting weight, blah blah blah. I was super bummed cause it was a year and a half since I last fought, I was like man, we’re in a pandemic, many promotions aren’t putting on fights, I was really worried I wasn’t going to get a fight in 2020. I put so much effort and time (in). That being said, putting in that expensive training camp, I got so much better from it and then I jumped into another training camp for XFC, I was prepared for XFC.”
In preparing for his XFC debut, Nash thought he was facing the toughest fighter in his division when he fought Spencer Jebb. After watching his next opponent fight, Nash is excited that he will face another tough test in Ryan Dickenson in February.
“I personally thought I fought the best guy in the tournament right off the rim. That being said my next fight is against Ryan Dickenson. Actually today (November 14), I was bored and I was hanging out after breakfast and I was watching his fight (he was a few fights before me and I was warming up) and I was really impressed with him. I think he is really tough. He thinks he is going to take me down and choke me out, I think he’s going to have a really hard doing that. But I was impressed with his jab and his right hand. He set up a double jab, right hand and that’s how he got the take down. His jiu jitsu looked strong, he got a submission. I’m impressed with him. Other than that though, I don’t see him beating me and I don’t see anyone beating me in this division.”
After another long layoff and a fight cancelled a month prior, Nash was looking for a chance to show off his skills. It happened to be perfect timing as XFC was planning their first event. For Nash, signing with XFC was an easy decision for several reasons.
“I signed with them because I really like the vision Myron has for the promotion. He seems to really care about the fighters. This tournament has a lot of incentive. They are going to pay you out a hefty amount of money to win the tournament. That was a huge incentive. It’s on NBC Sports and Myron seems like a great guy. You know, I was a little skeptical about it but actually after fighting for this promotion, I was really impressed. I’m excited to fight for this promotion a little longer.”
Nash will look to continue fighting for XFC a little longer by beating Dickinson in February. When he faces Dickinson, he doesn’t expect the fight to go much longer than his XFC debut.
“To be honest if I had to give a prediction, I’m gonna guess I’m gonna knock him out in two. I’m really confident about that. I think I’m gonna KO him within two. I think he’s going to be tough; he might surprise me with some stuff. But stylistically I think it’s in my favor. He says stylistically he likes the matchup which I don’t really get cause he’s a jiu jitsu guy and he has to take these guys down and I’m a division one college wrestler so taking me down is going to be very tough. So my is within two rounds, knockout.”
Nash vs. Dickinson will take place on May 28 and air on FS2.
