Ken Porter Has Put in the Work, Now It's Time to Make a Splash at RFA 44 | MMAWeekly.com

Coming off of a 2015 in which he won all three of his fights and raised his current winning streak to five fights in a row, flyweight prospect Ken Porter was looking to keep things going in 2016, but ended up spending most of his year away from fighting.

“I had a slight injury at the beginning of the year,” Porter told MMAWeekly.com. “I was (also) travelling and I felt like I needed to work on a lot of things.

“I went to Thailand and trained at Tiger Muay Thai for a while. I enjoyed my time down there and I learned a lot. I’ve been working on a lot of stuff and getting my MMA game tons better.”

Porter feels he grew tremendously in two of the aspects of his game he believes will be able to help him build off of the success he’s had the last couple of years.

“I noticed some big differences,” he said. “I improved on a lot of aspects of my stand-up; especially with my speed. I was always really fast, but I added a lot more to my arsenal with my speed.

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“I feel like I’ll come back 10 times better after the winning streak. I was already mentally prepared, but it’s gotten better. I feel like in the mental game, no one can beat me when I’m inside that cage. That’s how I look at it.”

For his first bout of 2016, Porter (9-2) takes on fellow up-and-comer Nick Urso (8-2) in the 125-pound co-main event of RFA 44 on Sept. 30 in St. Charles, Mo.

“I feel like I’ve just got to be myself,” said Porter. “I feel like every aspect of my game is something (Urso) hasn’t really dealt with yet. I’m going to exploit that.

“He’s a good wrestler, and I’m a good wrestler, so I feel that will eliminate that aspect of it, so we’ll see where it ends up at.”

After taking time off to improve himself, Porter looks at now for being his time to shine, having gotten to the RFA stage.

“I feel like I’ve put in all the work – a lot of work, actually – and it’s time for me to go to the next level,” he said. “It’s tiresome waiting this long, but I’ve been working hard, so hopefully I can get myself somewhere big.”

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