Saturday’s contest with Moises, which serves as the final preliminary card pairing on the 12-fight slate at the UFC APEX, represents not only a tremendous opportunity for the 36-year-old from Queens, but also a recognition of where the company sees him in terms of the lightweight hierarchy.
“I have a great opponent in front of me — a good name, has fought some big fights, solid fighter; it’s a perfect starting point,” he said of the pairing with Moises, who has been ranked in the past and, like Gordon, is generally regarded as better than his recent results may otherwise suggest. “I think (the UFC) know that I’m on the cusp, or I should be on the cusp, but that doesn’t matter to me anymore, because everybody knows, or they should know.
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“I don’t have to prove anything anymore. I just have to go out and do what I want to do for me and my family. I don’t really care what anyone thinks at this point, so I just have to go out and put a stamp on it.”
After a couple years where close fights didn’t fall his way on the scorecards left people almost exclusively wanting to talk about those debated decisions and the kind of “remember when” moments Gordon’s favorite television character Tony Soprano loathes, the Kill Cliff FC man has put those things behind him, left them in the past, and is focused on getting to where he knows he should be in the talent-rich 155-pound weight class.
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