John Dodson is fired up going into his next fight as he’s slated to take on Jimmie Rivera in a bantamweight bout at the upcoming UFC 228 pay-per-view event.
Dodson has gone 3-2 since making the jump back up to 135 pounds in 2016. He is fresh off a split-decision victory over Pedro Munhoz this past March at the UFC 222 PPV event.
On the flip side, Rivera was last seen inside of the Octagon when he took on former World Series of Fighting (WSOF) champion Marlon Moraes at UFC Utica where he was viciously knocked out less than one minute into the first round. He looks to rebound in this coming fight.
Dodson made it known in a recent interview that this fight is personal due to the fact that this has been offered to him five separate times but only now is it happening. The bad blood all started in December once he was offered to fight Rivera as a late replacement at UFC 219.
“I believe that the word ducking is actually the correct term,” Dodson told MMAjunkie. “When I tried to fight him in December when he sat there and cried, not only did he whine about it then complain about it, he put the cherry on the top and said, ‘There’s nobody in this division that wants to go ahead and do this. I missed Thanksgiving, I missed Christmas, I missed my daughter’s birthday, my anniversary.’
“You know who they called first to replace his fighter? They called me. He was like, ‘No, I don’t want to take that fight.’ I was like, ‘Dude, I’ll fight you at ’45, I’ll fight you at ’50, I’ll fight you at ’55. We don’t have to cut weight. I’ll go out there and fight you. You want me to make ’35, I’ll make it. I’ll make it in three days. I will suffer, I will torture my body. I will fight you.’ He was like, ‘No.’ I was like, ‘OK.’”
The UFC 228 pay-per-view event is set to take place on Saturday, September 8, 2018 in Dallas, Texas at the American Airlines Center. The main card will air on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET. The preliminary card will air on FX at 8 p.m. ET and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass, 6 p.m. ET.
“I’m tired of Jimmie Rivera disrespecting me time and time again on social media, in any interviews he does, in anything he does,” Dodson said. “Anybody that sits there in front of him he has the balls and audacity to sit there and tell people that I’m not worthy to fight him. A fan that’s sitting there telling me that I’m not good enough to go ahead and fight this dude. I have more losses on my record that he has knockouts. This man can’t knock out anybody and he’s sitting there telling me that I’m a boring fighter? OK, let’s go find out. Let’s put it to the test. I’m going to put my fist through your face and you can let me know how boring I am. How exciting is it going to be when you’re flat on your back looking up at the stars telling everybody, ‘I did see Hailey’s Comet because I need to make a wish right now.’”
