LAS VEGAS – If you’ve been pining for a new interesting personality to arrive on the UFC scene, Tuesday might be a good one for ya.
If Anthony Guarascio can deliver an in-cage performance to pair up with his pre-fight one on the microphone, the UFC’s heavyweight division might get a boost of energy in the near future.
Guarascio (3-0) meets Steven Asplund (5-1) in the main event of Tuesday’s DWCS 81 event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. He gets his shot at a UFC contract on the heels of a heavyweight title win for CFFC in April.
Guarascio first fought as an amateur in his teens. Then he had an eight-year hiatus. He turned pro less than two years ago, and it’s been quick first-round finishes out of the gate. But he’s also quick on the microphone and told MMA Junkie after the weigh-ins for DWCS 81 he’s got particular beef with the way Asplund talked about him in the short buildup to the fight, including a claim Guarascio has no relevant experience.
Sometimes, it’s just best to let the fighter himself explain it, though:
CFFC champ Anthony Guarascio taking fight for UFC contract personal
Anthony Guarascio speaks with MMA Junkie ahead of Dana White’s Contender Series 81 as he prepares to chase a UFC contract.
“Nobody understands until they’re in front of me,” Guarascio told MMA Junkie. “He was talking big to the other interviewers and these small-time interviewers – they doubt me. They doubt me every one of my fights and they’ve lost, every time on their picks.
“He was talking the way he was talking. He called me a c*cksucker. There’s a lot of things I don’t like, and I never said a word about him. To say the things you say about me and then stand here in front of me and ask me to put on a good show and be nice to me is an insult to me and the sport itself. So unless you’re here to die for real, I would choose another way to the UFC other than standing in front of me because that’s not a very definitive road to stand in front of the ‘Daywalker’ himself.
“I’m telling you, he claims what he claims, and he claims he’s going to cut me up and do this and that. He’s going down in the first round. It’s going to be the loudest body you’ve ever heard hit the canvas. I promise you, he’s going to regret ever talking to me the way he talked to me. People can continue to throw me under the rug, and I’m going to pull a vacuum out and I’m going to vacuum everything around me and I’m going to suck him in and he’s going to run out of space and he’s going to run right into what I want him to run into. He will go to sleep. He’s never been to sleep. He’s never been punched hard.
“He talks about I’ve never fought people, and I’ve this, and my combined people I’ve fought are 6-8 and all this other bullsh*t, and everybody wants to compare what somebody’s done or who they train with or whatever. I’ve got me, I’ve got my brother, I’ve got my coach and I’ve got my girl and I’ve got my manager. That’s my small little corner and that’s really all I need.
“We went to Nico Santucci’s house yesterday. It shows me to be a billionaire, you don’t need 100 people. The guy’s got one guy. So I’ve got me and my little crew, and do the billion dollars we go. I’ll have matching Bentleys for me and my manager, so just look for us out on the Strip after this one.”
Guarascio is about a 2-1 betting favorite against Asplund. Check out Guarascio’s full interview above.
