By Rick Wright
Albuquerque Journal
For a mixed martial arts fighter, it’s perhaps the most unkind cut of all — termination of a UFC contract.
Leonard Garcia, loser of his last four fights, realizes his UFC career could be on the chopping block Saturday when he faces Cody McKenzie in Newark, N.J.
The only cut he’s worried about, he says, is any that McKenzie might inflict with his fists.
“Absolutely not,” says Garcia, a featherweight who trains in Albuquerque at Jackson-Winkeljohn Mixed Martial Arts, when asked if he feels added pressure regarding his status entering UFC 159. “I feel like the pressure is on you every fight the same way. I’ve heard of guys winning fights and still getting cut.
“So I feel like the pressure, for me, is to go out there and show what I’m in there to do, (which is) on every fight. That’s the only pressure I put on myself.”
Garcia (15-10-1) and Zuffa, UFC’s parent company, go back together some six years. Though never a consistent winner, the native of Plainview, Texas, rarely has been in a boring fight.
“He throws his heart and soul into every single fight, and I think that’s what Zuffa likes about him,” says Greg Jackson, Garcia’s ground coach at Jackson-Winkeljohn.
Jackson and UFC President Dana White haven’t always seen eye to eye, but on the subject of Garcia they agree.
“There’s no way in hell we’re cutting Leonard Garcia,” White said after Garcia’s last fight, a highly disputed split-decision loss to Max Holloway in December. “… The guys who go and lay it all out on the line, those are the guys we like to have.”
Garcia believes his performance against Holloway might actually have bolstered his UFC status — convincing White, and others, that his sometimes lackadaisical approach to training is in the past.
“Whereas before I wouldn’t train for fights and would just kind of show up just to put on a show,” he says, “now I’m in the gym and I’m really pushing through. “I think they saw it in my last fight, and I think it’s gonna show through in this one. I hope to prove them right (for retaining him).”
McKenzie (13-3), of Metaline, Wash., is a submission specialist who likes to set up his trademark guillotine choke with powerful punches in standup.
“(McKenzie) loves the guillotine, and he hits like a truck,” Jackson says. “… We just have to make sure Leonard doesn’t get guillotined and doesn’t get into a straight slugging match, which will be the bigger challenge of the two.”
Garcia seems less impressed than Jackson with McKenzie’s punching power.
“If he’s a truck, then I’m a semi,” he says. “I’ve been hit by a truck (before), so I’m ready for it.”
Despite his impressive record, McKenzie also could be on that UFC chopping block. His three career defeats have come in his last four fights.
Regardless, with so much to lose, Garcia said he’s preparing for McKenzie as he has no one else.
“He’s a dangerous guy, so that’s why I’m (in the gym),” he says.
Underestimating opponents in the past, Garcia says, has been a problem.
“I would look at (the opponent’s) strengths and think, ah, his strength isn’t good enough to get me, and I wouldn’t come to train. But now, I’m afraid of his strengths, and I’m in here training.”
His newfound Christian faith, Garcia says, has brought him additional stability.
“I found inner peace,” he says, “and because of my inner peace I’m able to do things more effectively in life.
“I feel excellent.”
Jon Jones, Garcia’s Jackson-Winkeljohn teammate, faces Chael Sonnen in Saturday’s main event on pay-per-view.
(c)2013 the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.)
Visit the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.) at www.abqjournal.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services
