Athletes
Zachary Reese Seeks A 'Flawless Victory'
After Picking Up Two Wins In 2024, Zachary Reese Wants To Keep Climbing The Ladder At UFC 311: Makhachev vs Moicano
Zachary Reese may not have learned the perils of returning to a Mexican restaurant in Thailand after getting food poisoning there the first time, but as far as the middleweight prospect’s MMA career is concerned, he’s right where he needs to be after a solid 2024.
“I'd probably describe it (2024) as a personal development year,” he said. “That's the main motto or theme that I'm trying to do right now. And it's every day of being physically, mentally, and spiritually a little better. And I think that's why I love MMA. It allows me to work on all three of those things. But yeah, it's been a total change of pace. If you'd asked me 10 years ago what my dream was, it would be to be in the UFC and be a father. And I'm just super grateful for all that. I try to be mindful of it and not take it for granted.”
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The fighting pride of Shiner, Texas (population 2,163), returns for his fourth UFC fight this Saturday against short notice replacement Azamat Bekoev, and it’s bizarre to think that the Intuit Dome can fit every resident of Shiner in its confines several times over. But Reese embraces the kind of hometown we don’t see very often anymore.
“We have one stoplight, and our whole school is kindergarten through 12th grade,” said Reese. “There were almost no cliques, too. One of my best friends was a punk rock dude, and the other one wanted to be a rapper, and the other dude's kind of a jock. So it was like the Bad News Bears.”
This Bad News Bear did good, though, and his success is celebrated at home.
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“It's cool,” Reese said. “Everywhere I go, people notice me and say, ‘What's up?’ I have kids now, so I don't go out drinking. But after the fights or something, we'll go out.”
A couple beverages with his fans and neighbors will have to wait for next week because now it’s all about business. And business for Reese involves a couple hours on the road each way when he’s training in Texas, and a trip to Thailand for nearly six weeks.
“I got to train with a few UFC guys and yeah, it was good,” he said of his time in Thailand. “I stayed healthy the whole trip, and it's funny, but I go there now, and it's just strictly business. I just train and then I hang out in the hotel. I watched all of ‘Peaky Blinders’ in my free time, this trip out there.”
He also dodged diaper duties for his youngest daughter.
“That’s purely circumstantial,” Reese laughs, clearly in good spirits before he faces Bekoev, who replaces Sedriques Dumas in the UFC 311 bout. An opponent change is an inconvenience, but Reese realizes that the person across from him on fight night doesn’t matter as much as the man in the mirror.
“I definitely think about the possibilities and stuff, but also, at the same time, I don't get ahead of myself,” he said. “I'm training to be the best in the world and fight the best in the world and beat the best in the world. But it's part of the mindfulness. I'm really just focusing every day, day to day on winning the day, having great productive days, and stacking those little wins over and over again. And I know where that's going to get me. It'll get me fighting these guys that I looked up to a lot before I was in the UFC or before I was even a professional.”
And while the 30-year-old has developed a well-deserved reputation as an elite finisher, in his most recent bout against Jose Medina last August, he went the distance for the first time. The result – a victory – was the usual one, but it was new territory, for sure.
“To be honest, I wasn't stoked with the whole performance just because I knew I could have finished the guy if I would've made some adjustments and not try to make it like a Waffle House fight,” he said. “But it was a learning experience, and it was cool that it was a learning experience on a win. But yeah, I definitely know I can perform and show a lot more than that.”
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Which means you can expect him to chase those first-round finishes that have become his trademark.
“I want a flawless victory,” said Reese. “This is the only sport where you can have a flawless victory, and that's the goal every time. Zero damage.”
If you haven’t picked up on it by now, Reese is must-see TV every time he steps into the Octagon. And with two of his three UFC bouts in arenas, and another one coming up this Saturday, it looks like the promotion wants him to be seen by a wider audience.
“I do get the feeling that the UFC is really giving me these great opportunities for exposure,” he said. “And I think that's because when people get to know me, they can relate to me. And I am the average UFC fan. I went to Buffalo Wild Wings with my parents and watched the fights and obsessively could tell you everything about every fighter. And then there’s my style; I’m always looking for finishes. I'm always going out there and trying to put guys away because that's what those fighters I grew up admiring did. And I put it in my mind that that's how I wanted to fight. And I think that is going to resonate with the fans because I just want to be the fighter that I want to watch. I want to be a fighter's fighter.”
UFC 311: Makhachev vs Moicano took place live from Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California on January 18, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!