Athletes
The Dog In Daniel Pineda
Veteran Only Wants A Win By Finish Over Darren Elkins Saturday October 19 In Las Vegas
Nothing will test your limits and your patience like the prizefighting life does. But, oddly enough, at 39 years old, and with 47 pro bouts under his belt, Daniel Pineda sounds like he’s enjoying the whole process as he prepares for fight number 48 this Saturday against Darren Elkins.
That doesn’t mean he’s not a realist, and after more than 17 years in the game, he has a firm grip on what he wants and doesn’t want.
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“I enjoy everything about it,” said Pineda. “What I don't enjoy is losing and that's what gets to me. And that's what I told my coach and I told everybody, if it comes down to it, and by any chance I lose this next fight, I think I'm gonna just hang them up. I don't want to be those guys with freaking 10, 15 freaking losses on the record. I don't want to be that guy. So if, by any chance, Elkins does get me, I'm going to hang them up.”
It's kind of a shock declaration, because even though Pineda is closing in on 40 years old and has lost two in a row, if you know anything about the fight game, there are losses and there are losses. And Pineda’s last two to Alex Caceres and Nathaniel Wood are ones that make you remember good and competitive fights, not necessarily whose hand was raised at the end of the night. Pineda knows it, too, and he’s heard it from fans and his inner circle.
“That's what's been going on lately,” he said. “The last two fights with Alex Caceres and then my last fight, people don't remember that I lost. They just remember that it was a Fight of the Night and a fight that a lot of people think I won. But I know I lost; it's on my record. So it sucks.”
That’s the dog in Pineda, that competitive drive that has made him a fan favorite. To him, it’s always about winning and always about chasing the finish for however long he’s in there. Anything less isn’t acceptable, and that approach has fans circling Pineda-Elkins for Fight of the Night honors this weekend at the APEX. An extra check wouldn’t bother Pineda, but he doesn’t want a Fight of the Night with “The Damage.”
“Everybody's talking about it, that it's going to be a bonus and stuff like that, but I don't want no Fight of the Night,” he said. “If I'm going to get a bonus, I want to get a finish bonus. All this Fight of the Night, going three rounds, they suck ass, man. Let me get in there, finish this guy, and let's get a bonus.”
The veteran speaks. And only a veteran knows that he’s getting paid as much for a 30-second fight as he is for a 15-minute one, so why not finish the job as fast as he can. It’s knowledge that only comes with time, and now Pineda is passing that along to the fighters in his 4oz. Fight Club gym in Houston. And if you saw him working the corner of rising flyweight star Joshua Van, you’ll see that he coaches the way he fights.
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“That's the way 4oz. is,” Pineda said. “That's how I got so tough. And now that we got all these fighters at 4oz. Fight Club, you’re going to see that, A lot of people like the way I fight, and if you look at the fighters coming out of 4oz. Fight Club, they're all dogs in there. They're all going to prove they’re dogs. They're not going to go in there and just fall because of a body shot; they're going to go in there and they're going to push through everything. You gotta knock us out to keep us down.”
The same thing goes for their leader, who still feels ready to compete with anyone in the featherweight division, but isn’t about to delude himself if he feels that he’s lost a step.
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“What's crazy is that I feel good,” Pineda said. “But, like I said, I don't want to be that guy, with all these freaking losses on my record. So I'm going to go fight by fight right now and whatever happens, happens. But there’s one thing I want everyone to remember. Every time I fight, I want them to remember that I never went out like no little punk. I go out there and I give everything I got, no matter what.”
UFC Fight Night: Hernandez vs Pereira, live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 19, 2024. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
