The arena is the same venue where Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao battled in “The Fight of the Century” just last month. The main event, dubbed UFC 189, will feature two world title events – the much-anticipated world featherweight championship bout between Jose Aldo and Irishman Conor McGregor and the welterweight world title match between Robbie Lawler and Canadian contender Rory Macdonald.
UFC president Dana White announced in May that the 16,800-seat MGM Grand venue in Las Vegas was already sold out for the event. Despite usually being sheepish about pay-per-view figures ahead of fight nights, White also reported that preliminary figures already showed that the event, to be broadcast on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass, will easily clear one million pay-per-view buys.
That prediction is still growing. Many countries without pay-per-view access will broadcast the event on Fox Sports and it will be watched by tens of millions worldwide.
That puts Swick centre stage after years of recovering from esophageal spasm – a recovery made entirely in Phuket while building and training in his new world-class facility at AKA Thailand with his partner, coach and Phuket business guru Blair Speers.
“Alex Garcia will be no pushover,” Blair admits.
“Alex has a 12-2 record with two close-decision losses. He is young, powerful, explosive and athletic and while we are going into this extremely confident, we have left nothing to chance. This will have been one of Mike’s best fight camps and we have done everything we could in preparation to get this victory.”
“I was given some choices [of opponents] for my return fight, but if I’m going back I have to show that I’m serious, that means a serious opponent,” he told The Phuket News before flying out of Phuket on June 24.
Debilitating bouts of esophageal spasm, after years of misdiagnoses, led to a crunching end to a comeback in 2007. Mike, who had been living off and on in Thailand since 2000, made his permanent move to the island in 2012 to begin his partnership with Blair in building one of the premier MMA and Muay Thai training facilities in the world, AKA Thailand in Rawai.
And it is to that move and to Phuket’s “stress-free” environment for training that he credits his second revival. “It’s a gift,” he said.
The penny dropped only four months ago, while training Stateside where he returned for the birth of his second daughter Savannah.
“I was training and it just hit me. I have never been as fit or as healthy before in my life. It’s a second chance,” he said.
Mike, who celebrated his 36th birthday in Phuket on June 19, is no longer on medications for his condition and is now a much more powerful and larger welterweight (170lb) walking around at nearly 200 pounds.
His condition at its height made it impossible to eat many foods and he was unable to eat four hours before sleeping. He couldn’t put on any size and found it nearly impossible to even maintain his weight. He was having to fight in the UFC 170lb division a very weak and smaller version of himself.
“Now I’m fine. I don’t know how it happened, but I’m fine,” he said. “The natural diet easily available here, focussing on building my dream – this state-of-the-art training centre – and just the lack of pressure has made it all come together.”
For a man who was one of the original members on The Ultimate Fighter reality show, which took UFC to the world, and who graced the poster as his real-life character recreated as the official trainer on The UFC’s Ultimate Trainer video game on Xbox and PlayStation, not being in the spotlight has done the trick.
“Being here in Phuket has really let me focus on my training. You can’t do that anywhere else as good as you can here,” he explained.
“When you train in the States, as soon as you leave the gym you’re confronted with all sorts of distractions. Your phone keeps ringing, people are busy all around you. Here, you don’t have that. There is no need to engage in all the stressful aspects of just living.
“If you’re starting to get worked up over your training or a fight coming up, you can take time out. You’re already surrounded by nature, and then there’s the beaches. There’s nothing more relaxing than taking time out on a beach to clear your head and regain your focus on training.”
Mike is currently taking up a week of training at the AKA global head facility in San Jose.
“That’s so I can acclimatise before the fight. I’ll be in Vegas the following week,” he said.
“For me, it’s a win-win. I can’t lose. Many people are wondering if I will return to my old self, one thing I can tell them is I won’t, I am coming back better, stronger, faster and more confident than ever. This is the best Mike Swick that has ever been. Thank you Phuket.”