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Zachary Reese | Ready To Bounce Back
Middleweights Zachary Reese Looks To Return To The Win Column In His Upcoming Bout Against Duško Todorović
Zachary Reese heard the whispers. He knew what people were saying, that the reason he lost his January fight with Azamat Bekoev was because he shaved his mullet off.
“Man, I don't know about superstitions,” he laughs. “What does Michael Scott say? Maybe I'm a little stitious. But no, I'm not a superstitious guy.”
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The pride of Shiner, Texas, is a gentleman, though, so he’s not making any excuses for the first-round defeat that leveled his UFC record at 2-2 heading into this weekend’s bout with Dusko Todorovic in Las Vegas.
“Well, I thought it was going all right,” he said of the Bekoev bout. “All the punches that he was landing on me, I was like, they weren't bad. And then, after the fact, it was definitely to the back of the head and yeah, it's hard to see punches to the back of your head, turns out. (Laughs) So it sucks. But truthfully, how I feel about it is that I still got knocked out in a fistfight, so good on him. I've been here before. Unfortunately, I lost my debut and bounced back hard and it's just the nature of the game. I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's like a terrible girlfriend; she breaks your heart sometimes, but you keep coming back to her.”
And truth be told, no loss is fun or easy, but if you have to take an L, it’s probably better to get caught and lose a little over three minutes into a fight than to get shellacked over three rounds. That was the case in his first UFC loss to Cody Brundage, but that one was tough to deal with because it came in Austin, Texas, in front of family and friends.
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“I will say the second loss is easier,” said Reese. “I lost an amateur fight (to Kevin Holland), but other than that, I hadn't lost in 10 years before I lost my (UFC) debut. And obviously you have this lead-up, it's your UFC debut, it was in Austin, it was an hour-and-a-half from my house, all my friends and family are there, and it just goes as s**tty as it can go. And yeah, I'm not good at losing s--t. I don't even like losing at Monopoly when we play it at Christmas. So losing never gets easier, but there's a lesson in it. It's just the fact of the matter. You just got to take it on the chin and just keep it going. Just be a man and get back on the horse.”
That must not have been a fun post-fight dinner in Austin.
“Well, I had to go to the hospital and then back,” he said. “We ended up going to a Mexican place.”
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Who got stuck with the bill?
“I think I actually paid,” Reese laughs. “That was a somber dinner. It's so funny the way this sport is; it's the best sport in the world. You're either on top of the world or your mom's crying and there's really no in between.”
After that loss to Brundage, he stopped Julian Marquez in 20 seconds and decisioned Jose Medina, putting him on the must watch list at 185 pounds. The loss to Bekoev stings, but it hasn’t deterred the 31-year-old from moving forward. And while he usually supplements his work at home at the War Training Center with a trip to Thailand, this time around, Reese landed in Las Vegas, where he’s been working with former world champ Sean Strickland and the Xtreme Couture squad.
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“I’m just pushing those looks, just trying to get around the best guys I can,” he said. “And I met Chris Curtis in Thailand last trip out there and he opened the invite, so I figured I'd check it out. And there's a bunch of UFC guys in the room and I've been getting to partner up with Sean Strickland every day, so I can't ask for a better partner. And yeah, I like Sean too. I think the coolest thing with Sean is that in all the oil field jobs I had, there was always a guy like Sean out there. He works super hard, is a good leader, but he says s**t how he feels, and it's refreshing. I like being around that. And I think Xtreme Couture has a really good room, really good energy, and the head coach is great.”
Admitting that he’s a work in progress, Reese is confident that he will get back in the win column this weekend, kicking off a run that he hopes will include a couple more victories.
“My goal is three UFC wins this year,” he said. “I feel good, I feel optimistic, I'm grateful to be healthy and yeah, just ready to bounce back.”
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As for the mullet? It’s not there this week, but will it make a triumphant return?
“The mullet’s coming back for sure,” Reese said.
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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