Santiago Luna wasn’t expecting the biggest opportunity of his career to arrive less than two weeks before fight night, but when the call came to face Bryce Mitchell at UFC Vegas 118, the undefeated prospect didn’t need much time to think about it.
Riding an 8-0 record and confident in the preparation he’s maintained year-round, Luna immediately accepted the short-notice assignment and now gets the chance to make a statement against one of the featherweight division’s most recognizable names.
“When I got the text I was finishing sparring actually. So it was great. I was just leaving, I saw the text,” Luna told reporters including Cageside Press on Wednesday.
“First text was like, ‘hey you want to fight Bryce Mitchell June 6th?’. I think at that time it was around 9-10 days from June 6. So yeah super excited, got the message and I accepted.”
Luna (8-0) had no hesitation accepting the fight with Mitchell on just over a week’s notice, saying he stays in fighting shape year-round and is always prepared for opportunities like this. Training alongside UFC talent such as Chito Vera and Arman Tsarukyan has only strengthened his readiness for moments like Saturday’s scrap.
“I’m a fighter that’s always ready. Even when I finish fights I go back at it maybe a week after the fight. Thank God I was getting prepared, maybe not my own camp, but other people around me were doing camps or just training hard like I do,” he said.
“I’m always around a guy like Chito he’s always training whole year-round, now with Arman Tsarukyan for the past months, so you can kind of tell where I’m going from.”
Despite carrying an undefeated record into the biggest fight of his career, Luna believes he’s still far from reaching his full potential as a mixed martial artist. The rising prospect sees every opportunity as a chance to gain valuable experience while continuing to sharpen his skills against increasingly difficult competition.
“I said in an interview before I was planning on basically trying to clean up the whole division from the top to bottom. I wanted to fight everyone just so I can at the same time get that experience I don’t have,” he said.
“I’m 8-0 right now, but I am evolving and I can feel it.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Santiago Luna above. He faces Bryce Mitchell at UFC Vegas 118 on Saturday night.