Luis Gurule's Power Of Intention

That stress removed, Gurule gutted out a split decision win over Piccininni on the final episode of the eighth season of Dana White’s Contender Series and got the UFC contract he’ll break in this weekend against Ode’ Osbourne. Spoiler alert…he’s not going through a hellacious weight cut again.

“I'm a chronic procrastinator,’ he laughs. “It's probably one of my worst attributes that I have. So it's kind of along those lines where I'm like, man, I just did the impossible. That means anything under that s**t, that's f**king cake. But luckily, I got some good people in my corner, and my coaches, keep up on me and make sure everything's going good. So they've got me on a good track for this camp.”

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A good weight cut, a perfect 10-0 record, and the opportunity to make an immediate impact in the UFC flyweight division with an experienced foe. What could make this situation even more perfect? If his team, which includes UFC vets Brandon Royval and Alexander Hernandez, comes up with a name.

“I like Misfits MMA,” said Gurule. “Brandon likes RawDawg and Associates or whatever he comes up with. (Laughs) Hernandez likes The Boys or The Lads. But I like Misfits MMA. It goes well with everything I got going on.”

The trio, under the tutelage of Clay Matza, have come together since their departure from the Factory X gym, and they’re all starting to see the fruits of their labor. That’s been especially true since Gurule earned his place on the UFC roster. 

“It's just made everything more intense because my mindset's always been that the goal isn't just to get to the UFC, it's to get to the UFC and thrive and succeed and eventually get that belt on my waist,” he said. “So, if anything, there's been more pressure, more intensity, more focus on this camp than I've ever had. And constantly having that intention every day has made me a hundred percent better coming into this fight. And this feels like a full cumulative effort for our new team. This is our first fight camps with everybody together in unison.”

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You can’t help but think that with the difference between his eight days of prep for Piccininni and his full camp for Osbourne that we’re on track to seeing the version of the 31-year-old we saw on the regional scene, where he built a 9-0 record with six finishes. It was there that the former Fury FC champion made his bones and began waiting for that call from the UFC.

“There were talks about Contender Series back after I beat (Carlos) Lozoya, which was my fourth pro fight,” Gurule recalls. “I finished him and they're like, ‘Oh, maybe we can get you on Contender Series.’ So ever since I was 4-0, people were saying, ‘Yeah, we think we can get you in on short notice or we think we might be able to get you on Contender Series.’ So, after every fight, sometimes it gets discouraging, but, at some point, you just have to tell yourself that I'm going to do whatever it takes to become undeniable. And so I won that last one (against Jacob Silva last September), submitted a really gritty, tough guy, and so, after that, I was like, man, I don't think I'm going to get on Contender Series since the last episode's two weeks away. But I definitely think that I'm going to be up for a short notice fight. So I was like, I'm going to give myself two weeks to be happy, enjoy life. And then I'll get back to it. And, of course, right at the end of my two weeks…”

He laughs, knowing that we all know how the story goes. But there was the slice of pizza he was eating when he got the call to face Piccininni, well aware that a brutal weight cut was ahead of him. Did he finish his slice?

“Hell yeah, I finished the pizza,” Gurule laughs. “I love that pizza. I was like, you know what? This will be my last good thing. And then I was sick, too. I could barely talk. My wife's like, ‘You're going to make weight? You can't even talk. And I was like, ‘Don't worry about it, I’ll be fine.”

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He was. Now he’s a UFC fighter, and though some might think that he’s being thrown into the deep end of the pool against Osbourne, our pizza loving misfit isn’t blinking.

“When I go out there, you are just a faceless body,” Gurule said. “And I got dreams and I got goals, he’s got dreams and he has goals and, at the end of the day, it's who's willing to fight harder or smarter to achieve them. And my mentality has always been that if you take me down, I'm going to get up one more time than you can take me down. If I take you down and you get back up, I'll do it one more than you can get up. Whatever you can do, I'll do better, and I'll do it far more painfully than you can do it to me.”