Darrius Flowers thought he and opponent Michael Johnson were cool, and then: ‘It’s, ‘F*ck you’ now’

Darrius Flowers’ UFC debut was nothing like how he wanted it to be. Now he has some redemption on the mind.

Flowers won his way into the UFC with a 73-second slam TKO win on Dana White’s Contender Series in August 2022. He didn’t make his UFC debut until nearly a year later, though, and when he did, he found out the hard way about fighting at elevation.

At UFC 291 in Salt Lake City, Flowers said he went through altitude sickness that adversely affected him and contributed to his second-round submission loss to Jake Matthews. Of course, it didn’t help matters that he was itching to get in the cage, so moved up from his natural lightweight home to welterweight for the shot against Matthews.