Every fighter in all of MMA finds themselves in a unique situation as they look to circumnavigate a world that hasn’t had a fight in nearly a month. 

While teased with the prospect of a fight at the ill-fated UFC 249, Khama Worthy has had his expectations up a little higher than the majority of people. He spoke with the Top Turtle Podcast about having those hopes dashed and what he looks to do next. 

Hearing About The Cancellation

Like most of the fighters on the UFC 249 card, it came as a bit of a shock that the card was cancelled. The swiftness of the news hitting the airwaves made it such that the UFC wasn’t able to get the word out to all the fighters before it became public knowledge. As a result, Worthy found out in a pretty unconventional way. 

“Actually someone tagged me in a post on Facebook. One of the reporters had posted it on Facebook - I had done an interview with him like two weeks before,” Worthy said. “Once I saw that I looked online and there's a couple other places that are like confirmed and stuff and then my manager called me up.”

While some fighters had modest hopes (Calvin Kattar had reported being 50% sure the fight would go down), Worthy’s hopes were high. He thought that the biggest obstacles were likely out of the way. 

“Actually, I thought the fight was going to happen. I thought we had gotten past the bumps in the road,” he said. “I mean, they had sent me my flight information and flight itinerary, and they told me they were sending COVID-19 tests for me and all my corners to take.”

What's His Next Fight

Originally scheduled to fight Ottman Azaitar on the card, the late shuffling due to foreign visas and other obstacles left Worthy with a fight with Michael Johnson. Although a late opponent switch is never an easy thing to deal with, Worthy saw it as an improvment. 

“I was excited - he’s a bit of a veteran, he’s been in the game. He’s been in the UFC for as long as I’ve been a pro,” Worthy noted. “That’s a long time. I saw him when he came to Pittsburgh - second fight in the UFC.”

With that fight being nixed and not part of initial reports for the newly rumored May 9th card, Worthy has a wealth of options for the next time he steps into a cage. 

“As for my next fight, I’m going to ask and see if I can get that fight again,” he said.”I mean, the Azaitar fight was cool too, but I’d rather take the Michael Johnson fight - that’d be a little bit more recognition and stuff.”

Of course, those aren’t the only two he’s looking at for when he gets back in the octagon. 

“There’s a couple other fights I was interested in as well, so we’ll see.”

Being Ready

These times have obviously hit a lot of people in a lot of different ways. Worthy not only has the difficult situation that most fighters are dealing with, but he also runs the gym he trains out of - The Academy Pittsburgh, which is obviously closed up shop for the time being. 

“We're not open at all right now - [that sound in the background] is one of my coaches. He's doing a private with one guy, and a couple people do like maybe one or two privates a week just so they're not completely broke,” he shared. “But no we're not running any classes at least until May.”

However, despite not having his usual requisite of training partners, Worthy is still ready for a fight at any time. 

“Yeah, man, I could take a fight right now,”Worthy stated emphatically. “But like seriously if you're not prepared to take a fight that means you're like at home sit on your ass f****** watching Netflix, eating ice cream or something.”