Phil Baroni moving to 185 for UFC 118

Possible UFC 118 opponents

I’m going to go back up to 185 for this fight. There’s nobody I really want to fight. You know it’s strictly business. I thought (Jorge) Rivera, he’s from Boston and I’m from New York so I thought maybe Rivera. He’s been doing good and I thought that made sense because I’m from New York, but other than that I have no idea who they want to put me with. Like I said it doesn’t matter who.

On the move to 185

The cut was rough; I think I made the cut wrong the last couple times I made the weigh. I lost some strength and I lost some of my speed and explosiveness and I think those are some of my strengths. So I think that in the future if I made the cut again I would do it slower and go about it a different way.

“But right now I’m more focused on getting my strength and power back and getting my explosiveness back and in order to do that I’m going to have to gain weight. So it’s going to be a cut right now to 185. I wouldn’t be able to make 170 right now and be able to perform at a higher level. But at 185 I think I’ll be able to get my strength and explosiveness back and be able to perform at a higher level.

“In the future I’m not ruling out 170 but right now I’m going to fight at 185. I’m not sure where the best weight class is for me and I’m not sure where I will be best at but right now it’s not 170, 185 is the place. 179 would probably be the best weight class for me, but I don’t have that luxury.”

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