What Porter is happy he got for this fight is a full camp after stepping in to fight Daukaus on nine days’ notice.
“I’m definitely gonna be more prepared,” he said. “I’ve never taken a fight on nine days’ notice before, let alone a UFC-caliber fight. I wasn’t just sitting around doing nothing, but I certainly wasn’t in a full camp, and I certainly wasn’t in the best shape with the pandemic going on. I had no idea that I was going to be getting a call-up. I thought I would be getting called up for the Contender Series first or still have a couple more steps before I got that final jump to the big show, so I was a little more relaxed than what I should have been doing. This has been the most disciplined that I’ve been in years with diet, with my training schedule, with the intensity and the consistency. It’s totally different. I’m not gonna be cutting 25 pounds this time, that’s for sure.”
That means no Thanksgiving dinner for Porter with his family, but he has no problem sacrificing that for a dream he’s been chasing a long time.
“I love this,” he said. “I have to love it. I’ve chased this dream for 14 years before I finally got the chance to get my foot in the door, and now I’m here and I’m trying to capitalize on every bit of it that I can. I’m trying to stay as long as I can. You’re gonna have to boot me out.”
Porter is hoping to never get that call, and he’s willing to do the work to make sure his spot on the roster is secure. That doesn’t just mean working hard in the gym, but also studying the rest of his competition. That may be the biggest trip for the longtime regional scene standout, being able to look up the rest of the heavyweights on the UFC roster and knowing exactly who they are.
“It really kinda dawned on me one day when I was trying to explain something to my kids, and I go and pull myself up on the UFC website and it shows the number of fighters,” he said. “It dawned on me that it’s an elite few when you put things in the perspective of the world population. It’s a higher level of competition, but it’s nice to be able to say, ‘I got this guy in my sights.’ You’ve got a general idea of what the path ahead of you is gonna be like. And it’s easier to plan and prepare for.”