James Vick was a late replacement at UFC Fight Night 104, subbing for the injured Evan Dunham, he submitted Abel Trujillo in the second round of their bout.
Vick, who holds a 6-1-0 record in the UFC and only has two fights left on his contract, wants the UFC to start promoting him more.
“I was actually going to go off a bit and be like, I want to be promoted more,” Vick said on The MMA Hour. “I actually talked to, I guess, one of the PR guys from the UFC — I forgot his name, but I talked to him afterwards, like, man, I’m 6-1 in the UFC and no one knows who the hell I am. I was like, y’all got guys and girls who have .500 records in the UFC and they’re getting flown to places, doing guest appearances. I was like, why don’t y’all fly me somewhere? I’m trying to make me some money here. And he promised he would, he promised he would. I don’t understand why I’m 6-1 in the UFC, and I’m fighting in my home state, 30 minutes from my house in Dallas, and [I’m] on the freaking prelims. Because when I was supposed to fight Johnny Case, Johnny Case is 4-1, which is very good record in the UFC, I was 5-1 — they had us fighting on the second fight on Fight Pass. I’m like, what the f*ck? That’s ridiculous.”
Vick got the win over Trujillo in his home state of Texas and now he wants a spot on the next UFC card in that state, UFC 211.
However, with the card slowly filling up, Vick is hoping the UFC matchmakers can find a way to grant him his wish.
“He said, ‘I’ll see if I can find a spot for you,’” Vick revealed. “I’m thinking, I don’t see why not? We’re fighting 30 minutes from my house. I just don’t understand it. I mean, I understand that a lot of it is me being inactive, so it’s hard to keep me in the [spotlight] when I’ve only fought seven times in four-and-a-half years. I do understand that, so that is my fault. But at the same time, I’m not a boring fighter. I’m not a boring-ass fighter, I’m not a boring-ass person. I have three finishes in the UFC. I’ll give myself that, I’ve had one boring fight in the UFC. I would say when I fought Nick Hein, it was boring, because I was so injured I couldn’t use both of my hands. I couldn’t even punch for three weeks before the fight. I just had to do what I had to do to get the win, so that was a very boring fight, I’ll give them that. But that’s the only boring fight I’ve had in the UFC. I’m an exciting striker. I stand up and fight. I don’t try to go in there and lay on people, or take them down or whatever. I got a lot of submissions because everyone tries to take me down. How about some publicity, man? It’s a little annoying.”
Vick has earned an aforementioned six wins in the UFC, those wins came over Ramsey Nijem, Valmir Lazaro, Nick Hein, Jake Matthews, Glaico Franca and Abel Trujillo.
