UFC flyweight Louis Gaudinot
Louis Gaudinot doesn’t quite understand why Ian McCall is calling him out, but he does know that a year is a long time to wait.
Gaudinot (Twitter: @LouisGaudinotUFC) last competed on May 5, 2012, against John Lineker at “UFC on Fox: Diaz vs. Miller.” It was a victorious debut in the UFC flyweight division for “Goodight,” even though the bout eventually became a 127-pound catchweight match due to Lineker’s issues at the scales, Gaudinot made weight.
Gaudinot is finally returning to the Octagon, but won’t be meeting the combatant who has recently called him out via the internet. The aforementioned McCall took to The Underground, claimed Gaudinot has been chomping at the bit for a scrap with him, and accepted the challenge. However, Gaudinot finds “Uncle Creepy’s” allegations and retaliation a little belated.
“To be honest, I can’t tell you what’s going on,” Gaudinot told Joe Rizzo and Jason Kelly on MMA DieHards Radio on the MMA DieHards Radio Network. “The UFC told me I have an opponent in August, I can’t say who the opponent is, but they offered me a fight and it’s not Ian McCall. I did an interview over a year ago and they asked me, ‘Who do you want to fight next?’ So, of course, like any fighter, you want to be the best in the world, you want to move up in the rankings. I said, ‘I want to fight someone ranked above me in the rankings.’ At the time, they were doing the flyweight tournament. I said, “I want to fight one of the guys in the tournament.’ Obviously I couldn’t fight (Demetrious) “Mighty Mouse” (Johnson) or Joseph Benavidez because they won their matches, and they were moving on to the title fight. So, I said, ‘I’d like to face Ian McCall or Yasuhiro Urushitani.’ That’s all I really said. I never called anybody out one-on-one; I just said that I wanted to fight one of the guys in the tournament.”
Gaudinot said with the interview being more than a year old, and never mentioning McCall’s name after that, he doesn’t understand why “Uncle Creepy” would claim he is continuously being called out. Gaudinot would be obliged to the UFC if granted a bout with McCall, but due to the politics of matchmaking, the higher ups are not keen on this fight at the moment.
“If the UFC changes their mind, I would love to fight him,” Gaudinot said. “He’s ranked above me in rankings; that’s what I want to do, I want to move up in rankings. Of course, I want to fight those guys, and show that I can beat them, and show them I belong there. He’s talking smack, saying he’ll knock the green off my head. You can talk all you want, if we fight, it’s a different story. I’m not one to talk crap. It’s a business; I don’t have to hate the person before the fight. If that’s how he has to be, so be it. I’m in there to do a job, I know I’m going to win, I know I’m going to kick some ass when I go out there, whoever they put me against. I don’t have to talk smack about it, but I’d love to fight him. The UFC told me he’s coming off two losses, so it doesn’t make sense.”
A fight that is currently sensible is the bout that Gaudinot is scheduled for in August. It may not be his first choice, but after being out of the Octagon for over a year, the New York native is anticipating a dominant return to action.
“I had two different injuries,” Gaudinot said. “I was supposed to fight, I got hurt, thankfully I didn’t need surgery. I rehabbed myself, that was a pain in the ass, then I hurt a different part of my body. That time was a little bit worse, I thought I was going to need surgery, but luckily I didn’t. Now, I’m back to training 100-percent, and I hope to keep it that way. I had a couple bad streaks, but I’m anxious to get back in the cage. It’s been too long.”
