UFC Fight Night 27's Court McGee glad for opportunity in ever-evolving MMA world

Three years after winning “The Ultimate Fighter,” Court McGee might be coming into his own.

And the way he figures it, he better be – because the competition all around him is only going to get tougher.

At 28, McGee doesn’t seem like he should be at that point in life yet when he can say, “I remember when …” But when it comes to the way the sport of MMA is evolving, he can – it’s just changing that rapidly.

McGee is determined to stay on course, and his constant evolution in the sport also led him to drop from middleweight to welterweight before his most recent win over Josh Neer.

“You have kids now who are 12, 13 training for four or five years,” McGee told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). “You have to keep up with the curve. That’s why I dropped to 170 – the conditioning has changed so much that I’ve become a better athlete and I’ve lost weight. My body’s changing over time. I’m getting stronger and better.”

McGee (15-3 MMA, 4-2 UFC) on Wednesday meets fellow “TUF” winner Robert Whittaker (11-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC) on the main card of UFC Fight Night 27, which takes place at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The main card airs on FOX Sports 1 following prelims on FOX Sports 2 and Facebook.

McGee started his UFC career impressively. He submitted Kris McCray to win “TUF 11, then submitted Ryan Jensen his next time out. After a knee injury sidelined him for nearly a year, he made relatively easy work of Dongi Yang to win a unanimous decision.

But then the level of competition jumped for him once he was 3-0 in the middleweight division, and he lost decisions to Constantinos Philippou and Nick Ring for a rough 2012. That helped precipitate the drop to welterweight, and once there, he made a fantastic first impression.

At UFC 157 in February, McGee was utterly dominant. He swept the judges’ scorecards and, according to FightMetric, he broke the UFC’s welterweight record for significant strikes in a three-round fight with 166. Overall, he outstruck Neer 198-71. And he took him down twice, to boot.

But not wanting to rest on laurels, McGee was right back to work after beating Neer, and he believes that level of dedication is what’s likely to make the difference against Whittaker, as well.

“I punched the last guy more than anyone’s punched anyone in the welterweight division,” he said. “My striking’s not bad – I’m working on it. And it’ll get better. I trained the Monday after I fought Josh Neer, and I’ve been training since that day. I’m going to make the best of it since I’ve got a shot at this thing, and I’ve been training my butt off.”

But that constant MMA training evolution for everyone means McGee is not the only well-rounded fighter out there. Far from it. Keeping on that training path, working on everything, is what he thinks sets him apart.

Or at least what he thinks will set him apart as far as Whittaker is concerned. And after that, it’ll be done and on to the next one.

“Things change all the time,” he said. “You get grapplers who strike the whole time, you get karate guys who punch the whole time. I don’t go in with one game plan. My job is to go in and figure out how to beat him. I try to improve and change a few things, but if It’s not broke, don’t fix it. We worked on a few different things, and I punched a bag and (punched) training partners and grappled for hours and hours and conditioned, and it all leads up to that 15 minutes in the cage.

“I’ll be ready to go when the time comes, that’s for damn sure.”

And especially after his back-to-back losses to Philippou and Ring made him realize just how close he may have been to losing not just his place in the pack, but his job, McGee seems more self-assured than ever about his place in the sport and his ability to take advantage of the chance he has now at welterweight.

“It’s cool to be a part of the UFC and mixed martial arts,” he said. “I feel privileged I have the opportunity to do that on a big stage, or on any stage. … I’ve improved as an athlete tenfold since my appearance on ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ I’m grateful for it.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 27, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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