That’s the fighter’s life, or at least this fighter’s life, so while some are missing nights out with friends, going to concerts or ballgames, Bautista is comfortable with a Spartan existence for the time being.
“Even in my normal, everyday life, before all this, I didn’t really go out too much,” he said. “It’s usually gym, home, gym, home.”
Now it’s mostly home, but the 26-year-old isn’t complaining. The only thing that does sting a bit is that after a Performance of the Night finish of Miles Johns in February, he wasn’t able to capitalize right away in March.
“I didn’t even get hurt or anything and I came back to the gym that Monday,” he said. “I didn’t want to get fat and lose a lot of time. I felt good, so I said I’m just gonna go the gym. Two or three weeks later, they called me and asked if I could take a short-notice fight for the 28th and I said yeah.”
A couple weeks after that, the card – and his fight – got postponed. If there is any consolation, it’s that everyone else in the stacked bantamweight division is in the same spot as he is, and if anyone has momentum firmly in his corner, it’s Bautista, who rebounded from the loss to Sandhagen with a Fight of the Night win over Jinsoo Son and the stoppage of the highly-touted Johns. In other words, Mr. Bautista is becoming must-see TV.