Athletes
Garrett Armfield Takes On Canada Again
Garret Armfield Aims For His Second Win Of 2024 Against Serhiy Sidey At UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs Albazi
Garrett Armfield is back in Canada, back to facing a Canadian in Canada, and that’s just fine with the black hat-wearing Missouri native, who beat Brad Katona in the Great White North and also defeated Japan’s Toshiomi Kazama in Asia.
That’s two for two with the black hat, so why not make it three when he faces Serhiy Sidey this weekend in Edmonton? And while he may hear some boos on fight night, he hasn’t had any drama past that while on the road.
“I've never had any bad blood from Singapore or Canada,” he said. “They've all been really cool.”
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That’s not surprising, since Armfield is one of those guys that you have to like. Even when he’s fighting your favorite fighter, but the end of the night, you’ll likely be cheering for him because he always brings it. That was definitely the case when he faced Brady Hiestand in June. And though he lost to the TUF finalist in the third round, up until the end, it was an action-packed back-and-forth scrap to be proud of. Armfield is still a little salty about it, especially since he felt like the stars were aligned for him to pick up his third UFC win.
“That one really hurt,” he said. “I just felt like everything was just falling in line for me to get this victory. And I had worked so freaking hard to be able to produce that and get the results. So you put in all the work and you do everything you can, and you literally have signs that are telling you that this fight's meant to be. Literally, the day before I left to go to Vegas, I was walking out of the grocery store, and there was a guy with an electric violin playing the walkout song that I picked for my first amateur fight. Sounds crazy, right?”
Armfield laughs, and yes, you don’t picture an electric violin player ripping through Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” in the middle of Missouri, but, hey, stranger things have happened, and Armfield saw it as a sign. But it just didn’t work out once he got to the APEX.
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“To go out there and not get the win that we were looking for, and it's tough back-and-forth fight, a high-intensity fight, yes, it stung. And I did feel that for a couple of days, but the only thing you can do is move forward. My girlfriend saw how much work I put into it, and so I saw that she was upset, as well. She was sad. And I just remember sitting there, thinking, man, I can't let her feel this, either. Yes, it happened, a couple days go by, and you got to get over it. It's just part of the game. It's wins and losses and it's how you bounce back from it and recover from it that's most important. So you got to go through and just make adjustments to what went wrong. You could have done everything. And we did do everything right. I was proud of the fight. But sometimes it just doesn't work out. It did suck, but we learned a lot.”
He's also sticking to his current walkout song, Post Malone’s “Congratulations,” for this weekend’s trip to Edmonton.
Garrett Armfield Finishes Kazama by TKO | UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs The Korean Zombie
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Garrett Armfield Finishes Kazama by TKO | UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs The Korean Zombie
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“It puts me in a relaxed mood, but it's also inspiring and motivating,” said Armfield. “I remember they played it all the time back when I was in school, and so it's special. I picked that song because I really enjoy it, and I just remember it provides a feel-good feel for me. Whenever (coach) Trey (Ogden) plays it at the gym, it just puts me in the zone and I love listening to it. But the thing is, you can't over listen to it because if you do, then it loses its value. I'll only listen to it every now and then.”
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And he won’t be searching for it on YouTube when he gets an opponent to study. Then, it’s all business for him and his coach, fellow UFC fighter Trey Ogden.
“I like to get an idea of who I'm fighting,” said Armfield. “So, at the beginning of camp, I'll go through and I will get kind of a rundown, watch his fights, look for his tendencies, see what he does, see what to watch out for. Then Trey does the game plan and he sends me a sheet of notes. Then we rehearse that, study that, and look it over every single day. About halfway through camp, I'll watch it again. And then I usually watch it about the last week or so. So I don't dive too much into it. At the end of the day, we're more focused about what I'm going to do and less about what he's going to do. Of course, we want to prepare for anything and everything, but you’ve always got to fight your fight. You can't fight their fight.”
Well, Sidey isn’t one for fancy tricks. Like Armfield, he shows up to fight, and that mindset on both sides of the Octagon means the fans are expecting something special from these two bantamweights, just like the 28-year-old prospect gave them in June.
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“The general response from the fans was that everybody thought it was one hell of a fight and that we threw down,” Armfield said. “So I got nothing but respect from everybody from that fight and that's how I also knew that we performed well.”
As usual.
UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs Albazi took place live from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on November 2, 2024. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!