City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman speaks about the growth of combat sports in NZ and where to from here. Video / Michael Craig
Back in New Zealand to prepare for his UFC debut, Kaan Ofli has had plenty of time to reflect.
When the 31-year-old Australian makes his UFC debut in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, against Muhammad Naimov on February 2, he will realise a career milestone more than 20 years in the making.
But he does so off the back of his first loss in eight years, falling to a second-round knockout in the finale of season 32 of The Ultimate Fighter – the UFC’s reality TV series in which rising prospects look to earn a contract with the promotion.
“I haven’t really spoken much at all about that finale and my performance, but it was definitely a four out of 10 for me,” Ofli told the Herald.
“I wasn’t training, I wasn’t in the right mental or physical state, which is really, really disappointing because it was the biggest fight of my life and it was the worst training camp of my life. That’s because I was at a new gym, I was around some new people I didn’t have the best preparation and I kind of lost time as well.
“It is what it is, I learnt a lot of things. I hadn’t lost in over eight years, and that was a 10-fight win streak that I was on, so I’ve definitely learnt a lot from that.”
Ofli (11-3-1) is taking all of those lessons with him into his bout against Naimov (11-3), returning to New Zealand to carry out his fight camp at City Kickboxing (CKB).
Kaan Ofli will make his UFC debut against Muhammad Naimov in Saudi Arabia. Photo / Getty Images
This will be Ofli’s third camp at the Auckland gym, where he intends to remain for the entirety of his camp before flying to Saudi Arabia, where he will compete on the same card as CKB’s Israel Adesanya.
Adesanya will headline the bout against No 5-ranked middleweight Nassoourdine Imavov in his first non-title bout since February 2019.
“I have so much growth here, I’m learning every single day; there’s not one day that I don’t learn something new, so I get a lot of value training here, and also the boys like to grind hard here. That’s something that I was missing in my last fight, so I’m going to make sure that I’m coming and prepared,” Ofli said.
“They know how to make a champion. That comes from the culture to begin with. Like, on a Saturday night or a Sunday morning when we’re needing to do a spider (CKB’s famed intense workout for those preparing for a bout), people are here. People aren’t going out, you know, they’re sacrificing their family time to make sure that the guys are getting in their session, and that’s something quite unique you can’t really find anywhere else in the world. As well as the striking; obviously the City Kickboxing system is really proven and it’s very technical. There’s so much value here.”
While the bout will technically be Ofli’s second on a live broadcasted UFC event, with The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) finals taking place on a proper UFC card, the bout against Naimov will be his official promotional debut.
As is often the case with TUF finalists, Ofli was signed by the UFC – however, he had already been signed before the finale.
“That was actually one of the things that mentally affected me a little bit in the last fight, because I knew I had a UFC contract and it’s been something for over 20 years that I’ve been grinding and working towards.
“There were some words that were coming from some people close to me and that was like, ‘amazing, congratulations Kaan, you’re in the UFC. Win or lose, you’re in the UFC’ and those words ‘win or lose you’re in the UFC’ subconsciously gave me a great relief, you know; 20 years of hard work that I’ve been putting into this sport that I’m finally signed with the, the best promotion in the world.
“But that wasn’t the mentality that got me here. I was afraid to, almost, fight every single time because I was afraid to lose. Because I knew that there was going to be a setback- multiple fights or multiple years - but it was that energy that I brought to the cage and that determination to always win my fights. I’m treating it the same way now.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
