UFC Fight Night 99's Ross Pearson might be on the ropes, but he has no regrets

BELFAST, Northern Ireland – For most of Ross Pearson’s career, it’s been a roller coaster.

Since winning “The Ultimate Fighter 9,” the British lightweight has never won or lost more than two fights in the octagon. He’s bounced between wins and losses, succeeding enough to stay in the promotion, but hardly building enough momentum to come within spitting distance of a title shot.

This year has been an even faster ride. Pearson (19-12 MMA, 11-9 UFC), 32, will be the first fighter to make five octagon appearances in 2016 when he meets Teruto Ishihara (9-2-2 MMA, 2-0-1 UFC) on the UFC Fight Pass-streamed UFC Fight Night 99, which takes place Saturday at SSE Arena Belfast in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

So far, it’s been a bumpy one. Pearson is 1-3 in his past four outings and, for the first time in his career, lost back-to-back fights when he fought short-notice replacement and ex-Bellator champ Will Brooks at The Ultimate Fighter 23 Finale and then faltered on two weeks’ notice against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 201.

Pearson likes to be active and compete regularly. But he realized he needed to make a change in his training, or else he might finally lose enough bouts to be out of a job.

“There was something missing,” he told MMAjunkie when asked about his dual setbacks. “I didn’t know what that was. I went back home to where it all started. I went back to the roots of who I am and tried to figure out what was missing in these fights.

“I think I found it in this training camp going back home with my old training partners, my old coaches, going back to basics and finding out who the real me was.”

On paper, here’s Pearson seven years ago, when he walked onto the set of “TUF” as a fresh-faced Brit looking to upset an opposing squad of Americans in a country-vs.-country themed season.

“Ross Pearson (9-3),” reads the short bio released to the media before “TUF 9” debuted. “A striker, Pearson trains at Sunderland Jiu-Jitsu & MMA Club in Sunderland, England.”

That club appears to be no more, at least by name. Pearson still managed to reconnect with his old team and claims he was able to revitalize himself.

“I’m looking forward to going out and expressing myself and performing at my best ability on Saturday night,” he said. “I feel like everything’s on point. My training went well, my body is healthy and I’m the lightest I am right now so I don’t have a huge weight cut to do tonight and tomorrow morning. I’m going to be feeling good on Saturday.”

He doesn’t rule out a return to San Diego’s Alliance MMA, where he trained for the majority of his UFC fights. But he’s trying to move forward by going backward. He’ll soon see whether that solution works.

Anything, after all, to stay in the octagon a little longer. What’s never changed is Pearson’s desire to fight.

“The fans know (and) the UFC knows that I love to compete, I love to fight and if I get offered a fight I’m not going to turn around and say no,” he said. “If someone wants to fight me I’m going to fight them.

“There’s some opportunities in my career that I’ve took which I probably shouldn’t have took and I did, but it’s a learning curve. This is a game and it’s a business and you can say bad things about it, you can say good things about it. I took the opportunity, the decisions didn’t go my way, it doesn’t look good on my record, but I’m here for Saturday night to put that right and put it right in spectacular fashion.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 99, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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