At 35 Years of Age, Travis Wiuff Taking Meaningful Fights and Seeing Where It Leads

Having suffered three straight losses for the first time in his career since 2006, former UFC and Bellator fighter Travis “Diesel” Wiuff finds himself at a bit of a crossroads.

According to Wiuff, his recent losing streak isn’t something to be too concerned about and is something he can rebound off of.

“Two of the last three opponents have been southpaws, and throughout my whole career I’ve never done well against southpaws,” he said. “It’s just a mental thing where I don’t fight well against them. The one in between them was the one in Abu Dhabi and I got screwed on that one – I clearly dominated and won the fight – but the judges for some reason saw it another way.

“I’ll keep plugging away. I know what I need to do to be successful. I need to just get back to moving forward and creating pressure. I know if I can fight like that, I can be successful still.”

Wiuff will get a chance to get back on the winning track this Friday when he takes on Mike Kyle in a rematch of their 2010 KOTC fight. This time, the two square off at CFA 11 in Coral Gables, Fla., and live on AXS TV.

In their first bout, Wiuff was knocked out following a punch that landed thrown by Kyle after the bell to end round two. According to Wiuff, he feels it was accidental and there’s no hard feelings going into this rematch.

“It wasn’t intentional,” said Wiuff. “The uppercut landed and knocked me out and the ref stopped the fight. Later on it was ruled a no contest because it landed after the bell, but it wasn’t done intentionally.

“I spoke to him before the fight and after the fight, and there’s definitely no bad blood. He invited me to come train with him out at AKA in California. I think Mike gets a bad rap because of what happened in the past, but there’s definitely no bad blood (between us).”

As for the rematch, Wiuff told MMAWeekly.com that the strategy both he and Kyle will bring to the bout will be nothing new or surprising to anyone who has seen either of them fight before.

“There’s no secret,” said Wiuff. “I’ve got to move forward, create pressure and not get hit. Obviously Mike is going to try keep it standing and knock me out. I don’t think there’s a secret to either one of our games. It’s down to who can accomplish that in 15 minutes.”

At this stage in his career, Wiuff knows that he might not be headed back to the bigger stages of MMA, but that won’t deter him from continuing to fight.

“I have no grand illusions,” he said. “I’m a very self-aware and am honest with myself. The UFC doesn’t want guy who is 35 years old, has had 90 fights and is coming off a three-fight losing streak. Getting back to the UFC is probably not going to happen. They’re looking for guys who are 8-0 with six knockouts, two submissions, and is 24 years old.

“I’ve had a decent run. I’ve been successful. I’ve had runs in the UFC and Bellator and that’s been the highlight of my career. Right now I’m taking fights that are meaningful to me and I’m not really looking any further than that.”