Athletes
Billy Ray Goff: 'It's About Focus'
After Dropping His Last Fight, Billy Ray Goff Believes He Has Everything In Place to Pick Up A Bounce-Back Win On May 31
It wasn’t the result he wanted, but after Billy Ray Goff’s loss to Trey Waters last year, he at least got a Fight of the Night bonus, one that he used the way most of us would.
“Oh no, I was not an adult,” laughed Goff, who returns to the Octagon this Saturday against Ramiz Brahimaj.
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Do tell.
“I got a big barrel sauna that my teammates use all the time now,” he begins. “And I got a bunch of swords and got some tattoos.”
That’s kind of adult, with the sauna being a business expense. As for the swords, I respect it.
“I'm building up my armory,” he laughs.
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He’s also had time to build up his figurative armory, not that he wanted to be away for a year. But with fights against Nikolay Veretennikov and Adam Fugitt falling by the wayside, here he is. Not that this weekend’s fight came off without a hitch, as his original matchup with SeokHyeon Ko was scrapped due to visa issues. It was the same story for Brahimaj’s bout with Oban Elliott, leaving them open to face each other at the UFC APEX.
Goff, not one who looks to manufacture his career, was all-in for anybody. But you have to wonder if the first thing he wanted to know is how tall his opponent is after facing the 6-foot-5 Waters.
“Now that I've gone all the way up to 6-5, I think it doesn't really matter at this point,” said Goff, who, like Brahimaj is 5-10. That’s a manageable matchup, sizewise, and that wasn’t necessarily the case last May. But Goff showed up to fight, and was willing to do whatever he had to in order to get the win.
“I think I stuck to the plan in some ways getting in, but that's just how I naturally fight,” he said. “I fight very forward and aggressive. I wasn't listening to my corner or to the game plan entirely, so there's a lot of things that I made harder on myself, but because of the natural way that I fight - walking forward, coming forward, fighting aggressive - it made it happen without me having to really think about it.”
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And as the fight wore on, it was clear that fans in St. Louis were watching something special from the two welterweight prospects. Not that Goff knew that while in the heat of battle.
“I was not the most present,” he said. “Like I said, I wasn't listening to my corner. They kept telling me not to throw big kicks, like no body kicks, no head kicks. Stop throwing them. And I remember hearing it, too. (Laughs) It wasn't like I was so out of it that I couldn't hear. I remember hearing them say things, and I was just like, yeah, sorry guys. I can't really listen right now. My body's doing what it wants to do, not what I want it to do.”
One might say that’s a good thing, that Goff has reached a point where he’s fighting on instinct and not overthinking everything. But there is always the gameplan to pay attention to. How does he strike that balance?
“I don't really know,” he laughs. “I'm learning that. I'm 26, I've had two fights in the UFC and I feel like guys could go their whole career without figuring out that answer. I think the biggest thing is figuring out what works for you and, for me, certain mantras to keep present, prioritizing certain values like having fun, family time, slowing down at certain points. But the instinct comes from practice and preparation. I'm going to do all the things in sparring and rolling and I'm going to make it muscle memory. And then it's just a matter of letting yourself be free enough to be aware of what's going on, but not inhibiting your body from doing what it wants to do.
That’s okay, it’s been an exciting ride watching the 26-year-old figure it all out on the sport’s biggest stage. Since emerging from Dana White’s Contender Series in 2022, he scored a first-round knockout of Yusaku Kinoshita and had his Fight of the Night with Waters. Now he can go over the .500 mark this weekend and show the world just what he’s been up to over the last 12 months.
“It's about focus,” said Goff of the ultimate goal on fight night. “The pinnacle of the mental game is Sean O'Malley, Conor McGregor, even Khabib (Nurmagomedov). When people step in there and not only are they super focused, they're so focused that they can stick to the gameplan, they can fight properly, and they can also keep their heart rate down and they can make sure their breathing's good, they're doing this performance. They're playing this character in front of thousands of people. And that level of focus is such a high skill and an extremely difficult skill to get down. That's the game. Your mental focus and how dialed in it can be.”
UFC Fight Night: Gamrot vs Klein took place live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 31, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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