Garcia, Nelson look to punch their way up the UFC ladder

MANILA, Philippines – When Steve Garcia and Kyle Nelson enter the Octagon on Sunday, September 10 (Manila time), for UFC: Gilbert Burns vs Sean Brady at the Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, it will be almost like twins taking on each other.

First and foremost, is a candidate for “Fight of the Night” honors. Garcia and Nelson are on winning streaks and like to punch the heck out of opponents.

Garcia totes a 16-5-0 record while Kyle Nelson owns a 16-5-1 slate. Garcia is 32 years of age while Nelson is a year older. They are similar in height — six feet tall — and obviously weigh close to each other as they are in the featherweight division.

Garcia has seven UFC bouts where he is 5-2. He is in the midst of a four-match winning streak, with the most recent a “Performance of the Night” effort where he knocked out Korean Choi Seung-woo in the first round.

Nelson has nine UFC fights under his belt and is 4-4-1. He seems to have finally put it together with a three-match win streak, with the most recent one a stunning knockout of Bill Algeo in the first round last March 30.

 For a while, it seemed like the Canadian would even last as he was often at the short of a fight. 

“In my earlier fights, it was about learning about how to go about my weight cuts and preparation. Skill wise I was there but because of bad weight cuts and nutrition, I started to gas out. So it was learning about my mistakes that allowed me to go on this win streak,” bared Nelson.

That change in details saw him go on this current streak. 

“It feels good to get that first knockout because I took little damage and it gives me confidence to go up against Steve who is true to his nickname of ‘Mean Machine’ and likes to punch and hurt people,” said Nelson. “But I am going to punch him a lot in the face too.”

Garcia knows that and for him, it is also a matter of establishing himself ahead of his opponent. “It helps to dictate the pace because it forces the opponent to change tactics,” he said. 

He knows that a mixed martial arts fighter is only as good as his last fight. “You have to prepare with the mindset that you are in a war. You cannot look past your opponent whether he is on a losing streak or not.”

Garcia took the fight on short notice as Calvin Kattar dropped out of the match against Nelson for undisclosed reasons.

“I have done short notice fights before, especially during my amateur days. When I got into the UFC it was a four-day notice that was drastic (where he lost to Luis Peña). This one, I had five weeks’ notice. Going into this fight, the conditioning was already there. I focused on the game planning for Kyle. He is a worthy opponent and we will give each other problems.”

UFC: Gilbert Burns vs Sean Brady will be televised live in the Philippines on Sunday. The preliminary card fights begin at 4 a.m. while the main card, where the Garcia-Nelson bout is included, begins at 7 a.m. UFC and MMA fans can watch this on the Premier Sports and Tap Sports channels on Sky Cable and Cignal as well as on the Blast TV streaming application.