UFC heavyweight fighter Gilbert ‘The Hurricane’ Yvel reflects on his UFC 108 debut loss to Junior Dos Santos. The Dutch fighter plans on making a huge statement against Ben Rothwell at UFC 115 in a goal to slowly climb his way up the heavyweight ladder. Yvel felt pretty humiliated getting knocked out to Dos Santos within the first three minutes of the first round, but blames his loss to poor training.
Yvel will have another chance to redeem himself this Saturday night as he faces former IFL fighter Rothwell as part of the main card. He talks about making a personal mission to fight his way up through top UFC heavyweight contenders in order to someday avenge his loss against Dos Santos sometime down the road.
From Gilbert Yvel:
“Losing is always very bad. Walking out of the cage or ring not a winner, it’s just like, I failed. It’s the worst thing ever. And OK, you can lose, but to be done so quick without even putting up a good fight — it was just terrible. I started with two sparring partners. One got knocked out in our first session and the other I did three rounds and he didn’t show up anymore. Everybody was doing the Christmas thing. But we wanted to get in the UFC and this was our chance. I knew the conditions weren’t right but I said I didn’t care. I will fight prepared or not prepared. Sometimes you have to work with the things you’ve got. I sincerely hope Dos Santos will become the champ so I can beat him. It would be great to avenge myself and take the belt from him when he’s at his high point.”
