Vince Morales was quite devastated after his release from the UFC, but the fighter took it as a challenge and worked hard enough to get back into the promotion.
Morales had a good record going into the promotion, but he faced a wide range of competition and was still learning on the job. After suffering two straight losses, the foster was released from the promotion, but he saw it as an opportunity to improve.
“I’m a stubborn bastard,” Morales told MMA Fighting. “I don’t like thinking that because I’m not in the UFC or because they say I’m not good enough that I can’t hang and I can’t do what I love. I just kind of doubled down on myself, and I think it’s showing.
“I’ve been enjoying it more. When I was in the UFC, I think I was spending a lot of time trying not to lose the fight. And now I’m in there to fight, and it just so happens a win takes care of itself.
Morales stayed active after his exit and won five out of five fights, with four finishes. The fighter disclosed that the journey hadn’t been easy, as finding worthy opponents was a challenge. He revealed that he accepted nine different fights before settling on one.
“I was like, how the hell will we?” Morales said. “I was telling my managers, and they were like ‘Just remain calm, keep focusing on what I’m doing,’ and they’ll take care of that stuff. I’m like, my bills say otherwise. We need to get to work!
“Thankfully, I got tough fights. It doesn’t make sense for me to go out there and fight winnable fights. I want to fight some tough fights that I don’t know what’s going to happen. Like I’m going to hit you and we’re going to see who can hit harder. That excites me. That keeps me going.”
Being an ex-fighter from the UFC opened many doors for Morales. He could have easily signed with any major promotion, but the fighter had his sights set on the UFC.
“I think maybe right after my fight with Hunter [Azure] I was looking at upcoming cards and I can’t remember where I saw it. But, I saw Taylor Lapilus vs. TBA [at UFC Paris],” Morales said. “I was like, I’ll keep that in mind.
“I didn’t think about it again but then on Tuesday morning before sparring I opened up Twitter and Tyson Nam, who I’m good friends with. He shared a post saying he wants to step in to fight Taylor Lapilus because they were still looking for an opponent. I told him we could Roshambo for it and the winner goes. I was just kind of jokingly poking fun because that’s where my mind was stepping in for these [short notice fights].”
“My manager Facetime’s me, which I thought was a little weird at first,” Morales said. “After sparring as I was pulling into my garage, he’s like ‘what’s up Vince, how you doing?’ I was like ‘Good, how are you … it’s weird you’re not right to the point.’
“He said ‘how’s your weight?’ I was like ‘weight’s always good, don’t worry about the weight. What what do you got?’ He said ‘how do you feel about Paris?’ I said ‘UFC?’ and he said ‘yeah’ and I told him shut up. I didn’t believe him at first.”
After getting the news, Morales was eager to step into the cage and focused on Taylor Lapilus. He found out the fighter had no opponent for the UFC Paris and was ready to step in.
“It’s funny. I woke up one morning and saw Tyson Nam share something that Taylor Lapilus’ opponent was still TBA. He was trying to volunteer himself. I hit up my manager and he said no, he had an opponent. I go train, and as I’m getting home, my manager FaceTimes me and asks about my weight. My weight is always good and he told me, we got you back in and you are making a trip out to Paris. Okay, let’s go,” Morales said.
“I watched him fight Farid Basharat, I was helping Farid with that camp. I’m pretty familiar, I remember watching that fight and thought that would be someone. If they called me back I could see us getting matched back up… We have had more success as of late just focusing on me anyway. It’s mostly that and being aware of a couple of key things like his range and his southpaw tactics.”
Although the fight was taken on short notice, Morales had trained with Farid Basharat’s camp for his fight against Lapilus in the past so he was familiar with his moves. Morales understands the fight will not be a walk in the park. He plans to stay aggressive and always on the attack which will throw off the Frenchman.
“I think the first round will be tense. I plan to be in his face, and I plan to get hit a bit in that first round. He is so quick and sharp. But I think he slows down, and after consistent pressure, I think I broke him. I think I am the first person to get in there to finish him,” Morales said.”
