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He hit both marks, scoring a one-sided win to move to 4-1 in the UFC, and after calling for a quick turnaround, he’s back in Abu Dhabi for a Saturday meeting with fellow rising star Nathaniel Wood.
About the only wish that wasn’t granted was sleeping under the Octagon on the beach until he got another fight.
“If they would have went the following weekend, I would have stayed and slept under the Octagon on the beach,” laughed Kenney. “Twenty more days, I’ve gotta come back. Obviously, the coaches had to come back, too, but I got a little bit of a training camp in and got to reset.”
A training camp, in less than 20 days?
“I did enough of a training camp for the last one for this one, too,” he laughs. “I got probably eight, nine days in where I got back to pushing it hard and making sure everything was still sharp from a couple weekends ago.”
So after going from Abu Dhabi to Arizona to Las Vegas and back to Abu Dhabi, is he still happy that he asked for – and got – another fight so fast?
“I was grateful for it,” said Kenney. “I was hoping for that, I was speaking it into existence, and it happened. It wasn’t the following weekend but it’s close enough for me, and I couldn’t be on a better card. The Khabib-Gaethje card is what I wanted plus more.”
The world will be watching this weekend’s UFC 254, headlined by the lightweight championship clash between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje, making it the perfect platform for Kenney to display his wares for the fourth time this year.
In February, he lost for the first time in the Octagon against Merab Dvalishvili, but he roared back with a first-round submission of Louis Smolka in May, and against AlatengHeili, he came as close as a fighter can get to a Performance of the Night bonus without scoring a highlight reel finish. And while he didn’t get that extra check, he’s satisfied with his effort, especially since he got to show off his striking game for three rounds.