Imperial’s Garcia to make UFC debut on Saturday
IMPERIAL — Imperial Valley native Rafa Garcia will take the biggest stage of his professional mixed martial arts career on Saturday, when he makes his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut.
Garcia, who is currently undefeated, will be fighting Nasrat Haqparast in a lightweight bout during the UFC Vegas 21 event at the Apex Facility in Las Vegas.
This is scheduled to be the fourth fight on the event’s preliminary card, which will start at 5 p.m.
“It’s the biggest stage for MMA in the world,” Garcia said Thursday. “It’s the biggest stage for me.”
The 26-year-old Imperial resident was born in Brawley and grew up in Imperial, graduating from Imperial High School in 2012.
Garcia, who goes by the nickname “Gifted,” enters Saturday’s bout with a professional fight record of 12-0. He fights for the American MMA sports franchise Combate Americas.
Haqparast enters the fight with an overall record of 12-3-0. The two will be competing at 155 pounds, which is Garcia’s normal weight class.
Garcia has a background in MMA, boxing and wrestling. He entered the world of combative sports at the age of 13 when his father took him to a gym to get a feel for MMA.
He continued the sport through his teens, practicing in Yuma, Mexicali and the Valley.
He began his professional MMA career at the age of 19 — a career that has culminated with his fight Saturday.
“That was always a goal, to be in the UFC,” Garcia said. “The main goal is to be champion — that’s my main goal.”
The opportunity to reach the UFC came quite suddenly to Gifted.
“We didn’t know we were going to get this fight,” he said.
Garcia and his team were offered the fight on Monday after Haqparast’s original opponent, Don Madge, was removed from the bout due to visa issues, a UFC news release said.
“We’ve been training really, really hard,” Garcia said. “We were just ready when they gave us a call. We were ready to go. I was ready. I needed this fight.”
In order to deal with the pressures of being under the bright lights of a UFC octagon, Garcia plans to “just be myself, like always.”
“I don’t like to talk trash,” he said. “I think I’ve been handling it pretty well — being focused, doing what I have to do. I’m excited.”
Recently, the Imperial resident has been training in Orange County during the week and in Mexicali during the weekends.
Locally, Garcia has been training with Ulises Cortez at a training center in El Centro.
Garcia said he has to travel frequently whenever he is preparing for a fight.
When he is in the Valley, however, he makes it a point to stop at his alma mater to assist in coaching the Imperial High wrestling program. Garcia himself wrestled for the Tigers his senior year.
Gifted hopes that his stepping into the UFC octagon Saturday will “inspire kids from the Valley.”
“It doesn’t matter where you come up from,” he said. “You can always make it. I hope I do open more doors for people in the Valley.”