Chris Curtis excited to finally make his UFC debut at UFC 268
Chris Curtis has been waiting for a long time to fight in the UFC. The MMA veteran has over 30 fights under his belt and finally in 2021, the 34-year-old has made it to the UFC.
This Saturday at UFC 268, Curtis will make his UFC debut against Phil Hawes in a fight that has been in the making for a few weeks now.
Hawes was originally booked to fight Deron Winn at UFC Vegas 39 in October. Winn was forced out of the fight and Curtis got the call to step in last minute and he accepted it. Curtis then weighted in for the middleweight bout and Hawes decided he didn’t want to accept the short notice fight.
When the fight was canceled, Curtis had no idea if the UFC would keep him and luckily his teammate and friend Sean Strickland, who is currently ranked in the middleweight division, had his back.
Strickland was calling the UFC telling them to keep his friend and the UFC listened as the promotion booked Curtis and Hawes again for this weekend.
Prior to the fight, Curtis spoke with MyMMANews about the fight, finally getting to fight in the UFC, and fighting at both welterweight and middleweight.
You can watch his full interview in the video above.
A full list of fights scheduled for UFC 268 are listed below:
Kamaru Usman (C) vs. Colby Covington – UFC welterweight title fight
Rose Namajunas (C) vs. Zhang Weili – UFC strawweight title fight
Justin Gaethje vs. Michael Chandler
Shane Burgos vs. Billy Quarantillo
Frankie Edgar vs. Marlon Vera
Alex Pereira vs. Andreas Michailidis
Al Iaquinta vs. Bobby Green
Edmen Shahbazyan vs. Nassourdine Imavov
Phil Hawes vs. Chris Curtis
Ian Garry vs. Jordan Williams
Gian Villante vs. Chris Barnett
Dustin Jacoby vs. John Allan
Melsik Baghdasaryan vs. T.J. Laramie
Carlos Vergara vs. Ode Osbourne
