“There are a lot of opportunities, especially next year, but it depends on me to keep winning,” he said. “Obviously I would love to have the opportunity to fight for the UFC if they came to Canada – I think that’s the end game for everyone – but I’m pretty confident that the trajectory of the restrictions and things like this are going in the right direction now, and fingers crossed that nothing delays this.
In the meantime, yes, Larsen must fight, make statements and defend his title against anyone willing – and able – to face him. And that’s what it’s all about for him at this point.
Beat you. No matter where and against whom.
“When I first started fighting I thought it would be cool to get in a few fights and get paid some money to punch some people in the head in front of my friends and family, but I didn’t. fingers crossed for anything,” he said. “If an opportunity arises, that’s nice, but I definitely take it as it comes. I’m not going to be crushed if I don’t get the call from the UFC, I’m not going to be crushed if I don’t fight. I have a job, I have everything else. If an opportunity presents itself, I’ll jump on it, but it’s not like I have anything on my heart.
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So what is it about this game that drives him to do it after all these years? A self-confessed “troubled youth,” Larsen battled the loss of his father to cancer in 2008 and then found his way in life, eventually finding a home in a sport where he now owns a championship belt, a 7-2 record. , and the power and potential to one day make it to the big show.
“My main motivation is to work towards a goal of this caliber,” he said. “My life is better and I’m a better person when I have a fight in the cards. I’m in the gym, I’m training, I’m focused, I’m working towards something. It changes my whole lifestyle and my everyday to work on something like that. With other things, I don’t really have that passion and motivation. I work on an oil rig; I’m not trying to save the world by digging up dinosaurs. I’m not behind anything like I’m behind the fight, and I think the benefits it has in my life makes all the sacrifices worth it.
Don’t want to save the world by working on an oil rig? Has he never seen Armageddon?
“I never want to be responsible for my own oxygen supply,” he laughs.