Broken Bones and All, XFC Fighter Ricky Rainey Never Wants to Disappoint

In his last XFC fight, welterweight Ricky “Sniper” Rainey admittedly did not have the best performance, but it was for a good reason.

“I feel like I could have done better, but he was ready for battle,” said Rainey of is XFC 22 opponent Joseph Corneroli. “I definitely respect him for taking the fight and performing as well as he did.

“I had a fractured hand going into the fight, so I didn’t do 100-percent as I could have, but I got the unanimous decision, so I was happy about it at the end.”

When asked why he would take a fight with such an injury, Rainey told MMAWeekly.com, “I don’t want to let the XFC down.

“I want to perform whenever they want me to perform. I’d already signed the contract, so I didn’t want to back out. You’re always going to have injuries going into a fight, so I just made sure I was prepared for it.”

Rainey was able to follow up his win at XFC 22 with another unanimous decision victory last month at Fight Lab 31, raising his record to 7-1.

Currently on a three-fight winning streak, Rainey will look to continue his success when he returns at XFC 24 on Friday in Tampa, Fla., against Reggie Pena live on AXS TV.

“What I know is that Reggie comes forward a lot with a good wrestling and boxing background,” said Rainey. “I’m going to try to go forward as well and work my angles. I’ve also been working a lot of wrestling and did a NAGA tournament and did well in that.

“I’m just trying to get my strength up and be ready. Nothing in my mind is telling me I’m not ready for this fight.”

In what could very well turn out to be a welterweight title eliminator, Rainey’s focus is more on continuing his winning ways and not so much worry about exactly what lays ahead.

“What I’m going to try to do is keep the ball rolling,” he said. “I don’t really have a set idea of where I’m going to go from here. I just know I want to keep going forward, keep winning and be successful without any injuries.

“Whatever comes my way, I’ll gladly take it.”