LAS VEGAS – Neil Magny reflects on his UFC journey with an incredulous smile. It’s been almost a decade since his debut – and a little over 10 years since he was on “The Ultimate Fighter.”
Time flies when you’re fighting and winning, as Magny (26-9 MMA, 19-8 UFC) realized as he sat at a UFC Fight Night 214 pre-fight news conference. It seems like just yesterday he as in between his third and fourth UFC bouts, fearful his tenure was over.
“It’s crazy to look back on it and see how long it’s been that I’ve been here now, especially with the way my UFC career started,” Magny said ahead of his 28th UFC bout. “I didn’t win ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ My UFC career started going 1-2 that first year. I was literally at the point like, ‘All right. Maybe this is as far as I’ll (go) at this point.’ I remember literally walking into training one day and I’m like, ‘Man, I might be getting cut. I lost two fights in a row. I haven’t heard from the UFC in a while. This might be it.'”
