Colby Thicknesse plans to prove he belongs at UFC Perth: ‘I want to have some wars’

Colby Thicknesse is looking to get his first UFC win and prove he belongs at UFC Perth.

Thicknesse made his debut on short notice at UFC 312 when he dropped a decision to Aleksandre Topuria. After the fight, the UFC quickly told him he would get another fight and is glad he’s fighting back home in Australia at UFC Perth.

“Realistically, it changes nothing,” Thicknesse said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “I still have to go out and fight. I’d go to his country and fight in front of his fans. It does make it easier for my friends and my family. But, at the end of the day, I have a job to do and that’s getting my hand raised.”

Once Thicknesse got the contract to fight Josias Musasa at UFC Perth, the Australian admits he wasn’t too familiar with him. But after studying him, he knows Musasa is a dangerous opponent.

“Absolutely no familiarity whatsoever,” Thicknesse said. “But, funny enough, we both fought the same opponent once, I looked. We both finished him in the first round. But I watched his Contender Series fight, his earlier fights, and his last one. He’s a dangerous, athletic guy, but stylistically this is a good matchup for me.”

Entering UFC Perth, Colby Thicknesse is the underdog, but he’s confident he has all the tools to beat Josias Musasa.

Thicknesse believes he will be able to finish Musasa and earn his first UFC victory.

“I think there’s going to be a finish, because both of us are coming off a loss, we have some added fire, and we’ll prove we both belong in this company,” Thicknesse said. “That doesn’t mean I am going to take some unnecessary risks, but that means keeping the pressure on and making every second in there count.”

Colby Thicknesse lays out future goals

Should Thicknesse win on Saturday, it will be his first win in the promotion, which is the next step in his lofty goals.

Colby Thicknesse has plans to be in the promotion for years to come and has plenty of goals he wants to tick off.

“It would be the first stage of a dream come true. You have different stages. You want to get signed, I got signed. The next thing is you want to win, and I haven’t won yet,” Thicknesse said. “I want to go for things, I want big finishes, I want knockouts, submissions, Performance of the Night. I even want a Fight of the Night, I want to have some wars and tick all the boxes I can. I’m 26. So I have 10-12 years left. So I want to make as much money as I can and make as many memories as I can.”

Thicknesse also hopes that with a win, he can make a quick turnaround to fight on the same card as his mentor, Alexander Volkanovski.

“I’ve been training with Volk, training at the gym since I was 13. If there is an option where I win and can share the card with him in December, which could be one of his last possible fights, that would be a dream of mine,” Thicknesse concluded.