Athletes
Nate Maness Wants To Dominate
After Picking Up His First Win At Flyweight, Nate Maness Hopes To Take Another Step Toward The Rankings At UFC Fight Night: Perez vs Taira
When a fighter gets back into the winner’s circle after any time away, it’s a good feeling, but for Nate Maness, his knockout win over Mateus Mendonça provided relief 10 times over. The victory was Maness’ first in the flyweight division and also earned him his third Performance Bonus. It was also his first fight as a father as his daughter, Aubrey, was born in December 2022. As it does for many, parenthood provided Maness some extra motivation to get back to the good.
“You always want to leave a legacy for your kids and things like that,” Maness told UFC.com. “It is important for me to come out here and show her that anybody can do this. We're from a small town, too, so just put that in her head that she can do whatever she wants to do.”
As he prepares for his third bout at 125 pounds, Maness feels as comfortable as ever making the cut. The 32-year-old fighting out of Kentucky believes dropping a weight class, despite a solid record at bantamweight, forced him to put in the extra effort that, in turn, makes him a more impactful fighter. Whether it’s hitting extra miles or going for extra rounds, Maness ultimately views the decision as a “good thing” for his overall career. He laments the time he’s missing with his daughter, who turns two years old in December, but Maness is hopeful she will understand those sacrifices he is making when she is older.
It also helps that he finally got the results to back up the work. His TKO in October 2023 was his third finish in as many wins in the Octagon.
“I think I've been a finisher in the UFC,” he said. “That's kind of what I bring to the table. I go all out and I'm looking to do the same thing this time, and especially dropping into a new weight class, you want to make your presence known and we're looking to do that again.”
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At 5-foot-10, Maness is quite the physical presence in the flyweight division, and he’ll certainly have the height-advantage when he fights Jimmy Flick at UFC Fight Night: Perez vs Taira.
Although Flick is a successful grappler (15 of his 17 professional wins have come via submission), Maness believes he can get some work done in the standup game. Out of seven professional losses, Flick has been knocked out six times.
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“I think there's a lot of similarities between the two of us,” Maness said. “We’re both really hard to get out of there, and I respect that about him. But I think this is a bad matchup for him.
“He gets rocked in every fight. I’m known to put guys away standing, and he's going to shoot on me, but I really like the matchup. I think we're definitely gonna get this win early.”
Maness expects to defend more than a handful of takedowns to get the finish with his hands, but he trusts his training and his size. All things considered, Maness hopes to get his night over with inside a couple of rounds.
It would be a quality win to bank in the wide-open flyweight division, especially as he looks to find a chance to challenge the Top 15. If Maness got his way, he’d show off some of the more technical aspects he and his team have worked on the last few months before getting the aforementioned finish, but stacking wins in any way possible is good, nonetheless.
“I'd like to go out there and put on a real smooth fight and not be so tough this time,” he said. “I just (want) to come in and really put on a dominant performance.”
UFC Fight Night: Perez vs Taira took place live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 15, 2024. See the final Prelim and Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
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