UFC 165's Mike Ricci takes straight-ahead, no-frills approach to fight week

“It is what it is.” That pretty much sums up Mike Ricci‘s mentality when it comes to his job.

The UFC lightweight, who is a self-professed loner, at least in fight week, is just straight ahead when it comes to his fight career. That’s not to say he doesn’t leave any room for adjusting things as they come at him. But, for the most part … well, it is what it is.

Ricci (8-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC) takes on Myles Jury (12-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) this Saturday at UFC 165, which takes place at Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and Facebook. Ricci and Jury close out the FOX Sports 1 portion in a featured prelim leading into the main card.

While some fighters need an entourage around them, Ricci, who trains at Tristar Gym in Montreal with coach Firas Zahabi, has his own way of handling fight week.

“I like to spend time alone,” Ricci told MMAjunkie.com Radio. “I’m staying in my room alone. It gives me time to reflect and think about things and grow a lot as a person. I enjoy being alone. (Fight week) goes by pretty quick.”

Maybe that’s what made his time on Season 16 of “The Ultimate Fighter” less than a bed of roses. He reached the welterweight finals and was upset by Colton Smith, but even before that, his instant memories of “TUF” weren’t the greatest.

Looking back, it’s not as if he’s upset he had the experience, but at the time? It was what it was.

“I didn’t really enjoy it at the time, but now that time has passed, I look back on it and smile and laugh,” he said of being in the “TUF” house. “It’s something I feel like I enjoyed now that it’s all over with. But at the same time, I wouldn’t do it again.”

Ricci picked up his first official UFC win in March when he beat Colin Fletcher at UFC 158 in his return to lightweight after fighting at 170 pounds on the show. Against Jury, he’ll be looking for his first winning streak in nearly four years.

The training partner of Georges St-Pierre started his career 5-0 and got a call from Bellator MMA. In the opening round of the Season 2 lightweight tournament, Ricci was being called the next GSP.

Then he ran into Pat Curran, now Bellator’s featherweight champ. Curran knocked him out with one punch in the first round, and Ricci then spent a year without a fight before he came back and stopped Jesse Ronson in Montreal. (Ronson, coincidentally, makes his UFC debut on Saturday at UFC 165.)

“I was young in the sport,” Ricci said of the loss and the GSP label. “I had only been fighting for about a year. I got that label, and it was a little overwhelming. But it’s something I grew from.”

Still, he’s alternated losses and wins starting with that Curran loss, and he’ll be looking to snap that stretch against Jury, who is a 4-to-1 favorite in the fight.”

But in true Ricci form, he isn’t worried about the odds. He isn’t worried about what Jury might do to him or what game plan he might bring to the table.

“I watch game film, but all that’s done with – none of that makes any difference to me,” Ricci said. “I let Firas take care of game plans. I just go out there and fight. I train hard, listen to what he says and switch on. I don’t like to overthink things. I just get in there and let my body react.

“It never goes according to plan. The fight is what it is. The fight plays out 1,000 different ways in your head, but what happens that night is always unique. Whatever it is, I look forward to it.”

For the latest on UFC 165, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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