Myles Jury prefers patience over pouting, deeds over words
In a perfect world, Myles Jury would be fighting Nate Diaz this weekend with a chance to vault into the conversation for a title shot in 2015. But instead he's facing Takanori Gomi in Japan with little chance to move forward in the lightweight divisional rankings.
Jury was offered a fight with Diaz a few months back, but the wayward Ultimate Fighter winner turned down the bout amidst an ongoing contract dispute with the UFC. When Diaz dropped out, Jury could have easily heard names like Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone, Rafael dos Anjos or even Bobby Green but instead he got Gomi.
As the No. 9-ranked lightweight in the world, it would appear Jury is getting passed over for bigger fights in favor of taking an unfavorable matchup where he's required to travel all the way to Japan and fight someone well outside of the rankings who is competing in his own backyard.
But instead of complaining or shouting to the heavens about how he's being mistreated, Jury just put his head down, went back into the gym and started preparing for Gomi just like he would have done for Diaz. Rather than looking at the ways he got screwed over and pouting "why me?" all day long, Jury prefers to behave like the top stars in UFC history.
His credo: Fight who the UFC puts in front of him and one day good things will come.
"If you look back at the best fighters in the world -- GSP, Anderson Silva, the Randy Coutures -- if anything people would talk crap about them and they would just go out and beat the snot out of them. Those guys lived it, they didn't talk it. That's what I try to do," Jury told FOX Sports.
"I really try to be an example instead of just being on Twitter and social media, trying to prove to everybody that I'm the best."
Jury looks at his fight with Gomi as a chance to travel to a new country where he's never been before and get paid to do it. He's not oblivious to the fact that the window for all fighters to make enough money to survive on for the rest of their lives is extremely small so rather than sit out and wait, Jury will take the fight and collect his paycheck.
Jury believes saying no is just like turning down money and he likes money.
"The biggest advantage I ever had was a fighter would fly me in to help them train and I would be broke so broke that sometimes the best thing that would ever happen to me is my dad would wire me $100 and that just meant the world to me," Jury said. "That's where I was at in life, I didn't have money. I had to earn everything I've gotten so far.
"Once you're in the UFC and you start making money, a lot of people think it's going to just keep coming forever. Realistically, this is a short career. You don't really see too many Randy Coutures anymore. The sport has evolved so much, it's a young man's game. I'm trying to be smart with the money I'm making and make as much money as I can each fight."
With his 15th consecutive career win this weekend, Jury will find himself in a prime position to make a serious push toward the upper half of the top 10 but even if he smashes Gomi in the first round don't expect some outlandish statement about his standing in the division to start pouring out of his mouth.
Jury is a big believer in the motto "deeds not words" and he'd rather let his fists do the talking for him.
"That's the quiet confidence I keep talking about, especially when I keep winning fights, I only have places to go and that's up," Jury said. "Guys like (Donald) Cerrone, (Anthony) Pettis, and Benson Henderson, those guys will eventually get offered to me and when they do, I feel I'll be in a perfect position to put on a great fight and get some great wins."
