UFC 263 was announced back in April, but Matt Frevola has been training for the event for more than a year.
The Long Island native was supposed to fight Frank Camacho, his UFC 263 opponent, last year before it was canceled due to COVID-19. Now, the wait is nearly over, as the two will finally go at it in the octagon on June 12.
"I've been training for this guy and had this fight on my mind for a long time," Frevola told Pete Hoffman on the latest episode of The Fight Fan. "I'm excited to finally get in there and have a great fight with Frank."
Frevola will be looking to get back in the win column after losing by unanimous decision back in January, and now, the attention turns back to where it was at this time last year, training for Camacho. The hyper-focus on one opponent for so many months could at times be draining, but Frevola's corner has tried to manage that as the anticipation builds for a fight that is now more than a year in the making.
"Over-training in general is definitely some of us fighters tend to do a lot…in every fight camp I've learned and I've grown and gotten better," Frevola said. "I have my coaches who sometimes have to pull the reins back a bit on me, and that's what they've had to do now, but I feel like I'm right on point and I'm excited."
Frevola didn't fight at all in 2020, and after suffering the second loss of his career at UFC 257, he has been working to cut weight to prepare for UFC 263, which will be followed by a heart piece of steak, which he has missed for far too long as he looks to make weight.
"I feel hungry, that's what I feel," Frevola laughed. "I'm hungry. I'm ready to eat. At this point in camp I'm pretty focused on the weight cut, and I'm also ready to get in that octagon and throw down."
When he does get in the octagon, it will be in front of a packed crowd in Arizona, a welcomed sight that will add to the excitement of the event. But after a year of buildup, no extra excitement was needed.
"At the end of the day, a fight's a fight," Frevola said. I'm in the octagon, it's me and my opponent and a ref is gonna pull me off a guy when I'm finishing him. But I'm excited to get on the card. It's a huge card…those apex fights were cool when they first started, being able to hear the corners and hear the shots and stuff, but when I watched that first UFC when they had fans back in Jacksonville, the energy that the fans brought was electric."
Listen to Frevola's full interview on The Fight Fan below!
