Athletes
Adam Fugitt | 'It's Go Time'
Adam Fugitt Welcomes Islam Dulatov To His First Fight Inside The Octagon As The Two Clash At UFC 318: Holloway vs Poirier 3 on July 19, 2025
It’s always nice to come into a fight off a win, like Adam Fugitt will do when he faces Islam Dulatov on Saturday in New Orleans.
But despite this, the reality remains that it’s been over a year since that last fight against Josh Quinlan, and the 36-year-old has missed all of this.
That means the competition, the paycheck, the excitement of fight week, and one thing in particular.
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“That present moment when they shut the doors and it's time to go,” said Fugitt. “Nothing gets more real in that moment. There's no past, there's no future. You better be locked in right then and there. And nothing else matters. It’s go time.”
Such a feeling is addictive, and it’s never changed throughout the Eugene, Oregon native’s 14 professional fights. Whether you’ve had the best or worst training camp, all that matters is right now, and there’s no one else to help you. It’s on you. And while Fugitt is young in his UFC career as he prepares to make his fifth walk to the Octagon, he knows this won’t last forever and that nothing will ever replace that feeling.
“No,” he said. “That's when life makes the most sense to me right now.”
It makes perfect sense, because even though MMA is one of the most complex of sports, it is a fight, and the path to winning that fight is usually very clear. Getting to the fight? That’s a whole other story, and it’s what Fugitt has been dealing with since he won his second UFC fight over Quinlan in June of 2024.
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Originally scheduled to return in February, first against Dulatov, then Billy Ray Goff, Fugitt had to deal with an injury that kept him sidelined until he got rebooked with Dulatov, but he did think of trying to come back earlier this year while not at a hundred percent. What changed his mind?
“When the coach sits down and looks at you and says, this is going to play out two ways,” laughs Fugitt before detailing his coach’s advice and the ultimate conclusion that neither of those two ways were going to be good. So Fugitt sat out, got healthy, and he’s back this weekend. That’s the simple version; reality is much more complicated in this game.
“I feel like I've been in a training camp for half a year now for the same guy,” Fugitt laughs. “So there's that, and it's frustrating; I just feel like I'm in a time loop. I'm living the same thing over and over again. And then, as much as all of us have vices, my vice is food. I like to eat good food. Now I'm on a routine diet, trying to get my weight down, and along with it, I’m going in and getting hit every day. And we're not a bunch of kids out there just playing with fire, but anything can happen any given day. You can take the wrong shot and you're done for, so it's definitely interesting.”
But he’s still here, making those sacrifices for that opportunity to compete in front of the worldand prove that he’s one of the best welterweights in that world.
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“It goes back to one of the first beliefs that I had about myself, which was that I feel like not only am I one of the best in the world, but on any given day against anybody in my division, I'm a problem. I can't be overlooked. And I'm out to prove to myself that those things are true and that as hard and as far as I can push myself, I can make it.”
UFC 318: Holloway vs Poirier 3 took place live from Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana on July 19, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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