‘It was a mess’: Matheus Camilo reacts to chaotic change of plans, mid-fight injury in UFC 322 win

Matheus Camilo had to deal with a lot of changes before securing his first octagon victory at UFC 322, which went down Nov. 15 at Madison Square Garden, New York.

Camilo flew to Abu Dhabi in October but saw Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady withdraw from UFC 321 just hours before the weigh-ins on Oct. 23. Camilo was promised a fight in November and stayed in shape hoping to be on the UFC APEX event the week after, but instead flew to New York for a massive pay-per-view undercard match versus Viacheslav Borshchev.

“It was a mess, but it worked out,” Camilo told MMA Fighting. “The first few days were really bad. It was just a few hours before weigh-ins when they told me the fight was off. I was already ready to start dehydrating — I still had about 4kg left, and I had already cut almost 9kg. I was really sad when I found out, it killed all the excitement to fight.”

“Sean Shelby asked if I wanted to fight on the November 8 card and I said yes. They changed my flight so I could get back to Las Vegas as soon as possible. I stayed on diet and didn’t have an opponent, then they gave me an opponent completely different from the original one for a new date. There were a lot of changes but my desire to win made the difference.”

Camilo won a decision over Borshchev and returned home in Las Vegas with “an enormous feeling of gratitude” for his first UFC victory. He still wasn’t fully satisfied with his performance but happy given the circumstances, wondering why Borshchev was “slippery as hell” in the cage.

“I tried to hold him and the dude was slippery,” Camilo said. “I was going for a kimura on him and his arm kept slipping out. He already knew, for sure, that I was going to try to grapple with him. … I know he’s a very experienced guy, very tough on the feet and on the ground. He surprised me on the ground. I thought it would be easy to take him down to try my ground game but he’s a very experienced guy, so he surprised me.”

On top of that, Camilo also had to deal with an injury sustained early in the fight.

“I ended up injuring my foot in the first round,” Camilo said. “Few people know this, but on the second kick I threw, I hurt my foot and it was really painful. I couldn’t even step on it. I had to deal with all of that in the cage, on top of the emotions. I wanted to show more, but that’s how it went. Next time you’ll see a new version of Matheus.”

Camilo turns 25 in January and is eager to show his potential in the UFC. At 1-1 in the organization, “Jaguar” said he will gladly accept any name thrown his way to build a reputation for himself in the sport.

“I can’t wait to get back in the octagon,” Camilo said. “I’m young, I’m hungry, and I can’t wait to work. I like challenges. Whoever they put in front of me, I’ll be ready to go to war, fight, and always win.”