MMA Fighting - Jimmy Flick Explains Why He's Ending Retirement: 'Only Box Left To Check Is Winning UFC Title'

Episode Date: July 7, 2022

Promising UFC flyweight contender Jimmy Flick speaks with MMA Fighting's Mike Heck in an exclusive interview to reveal why he's coming out of retirement to return to the UFC, how the promotion received the news, who should get the first crack, why he wants to fight Tim Elliott, wanting to get to the UFC flyweight title to check off the final box for his career, and much more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine,

available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, Mike Huck here for MMAfighting.com being joined by a man who, as of like a month ago, I would have called former UFC Flyway, but apparently we're taking the former off of that title. Jimmy the brick flick apparently has some big news for us, and he is kind enough to join us to discuss this news.

Jimmy, how are you, my man? It's good to see you. Hey, man, I'm doing good, and now I'm about to be doing great. So a lot of stuff that's happened in my life over the last year and a half. And unfortunately, I've made some decisions. And now my decision is to come back to. the UFC and try to become everything I wanted to be. All right.

So just to clear the air with everybody on social media, everything, we're coming back. Retirement is over. Jimmy Flick, we're doing the damn thing. We're back, right? Oh, we're back. We're in USADA. We'll be getting drug tested soon. It could be up to six months before my return, but your boy don't do nothing.

Your boy ain't worried. Like, all my drug tests are been clean. they're going to continue to be clean. And so hopefully the UFC likes that. And, you know, the flyweight's got a lot of buzz. And it's going to have some more buzz. So I think they're going to get me back as soon as possible. Well, this is great news for UFC fans, for sure, for fans of MMA,

because the retirement happened pretty abruptly. And we'll go back to some of the things you said in a moment when it comes to the retirement. But I guess the question everybody wants to know is, why now? because it was just a year, it was a little over a year ago, 15 months ago. April 2021 is when you announced your retirement. You did a bunch of interviews explaining why and you laid them out. There were some very emotional interviews that you did. But now, 15 months later, we're back.

Why now? Well, to make it short and sweet, I quit for my family. I quit for all the reasons I thought I wanted to quit. and at the end of the day, you've got to be happy. And you got to be happy with what you're doing. You've got to be happy where you're going. I ended up leaving the job Tulsa Plastic Company that I've been at for five years. And for more money, the more money is not what I wanted.

It's not what my family wanted. At the end of the day, me and my family want to be happy. My girls want to be happy. The person I was with wants to be happy. And that's what we're doing. We're moving forward to be happy. And we have different goals in life now. And now I can pursue other goals, make new goals.

The book is on hold. But my UFC career is no longer on hold. And I'm going to pursue my career as a UFC fighter. I want to be the biggest thing to ever come out. San Springs, Oklahoma, and I want to leave a legacy for my girls. I want to leave something behind. I want to own stuff. I want them to have stuff that they've never had.

The time is now. So how long have you been weighing with this decision? Is this something that you thought about ever since the retirement, or was there a specific moment when you realized, hey, I was happier as a UFC fighter. I have to sort of weigh this decision, pros and cons like when did you realize that maybe the retirement's not going to stick well over the last few months i was actually in the process of opening my own gym uh in that process of opening my own

gym um i sold the car that i bought with my UFC bonus and i was going to use that money to open a gym the me and my partner at the time had noticed that i was looking for something I was looking back, whether it's for the UFC, whether it was to open a gym, whether it was Brazilian jiu-jitsu that I've loved and I still love to this day and miss it. And I was finding different ways to get back to fighting. And in the long run, that's what I really wanted. And to be happy, that's what I'm going to do. I currently have my own place.

I have a schedule set up for me and my girls. and now I want to pursue my dream at being a UFC champ. And if you look up all the UFC champs right now, they're currently between the ages of 32 and 39. I turned 32 this year. So it's perfect timing. The circumstance sucked, but I'm going to do what I love.

And I love mixed martial arts. I love fighting. and I love giving back to my community. And that's what I'm going to do. And I'm going to make my girls proud. So you mentioned some things in past tense, the person you were with and things like that. So I don't want to dive too personal with this.

But how much did the separation, if you will, from your soon-to-be ex-wife? How much did that way on this decision? Well, I mean, it did help push the situation. I've always thought about it, of course. she's always had it in the back of her head as well. And at the end of the day, we want to be happy. She deserves to be happy.

The woman supported me for 11 years of my life. I still love the woman to death. But unfortunately, we have different goals and we have different ways that we want to be happy. And I'm going to pursue what makes me happy, and she's going to pursue what makes her happy. I'm working on my relationship with my father as well ever since my retirement. they've been there to help me through this situation. So hopefully in the long run, maybe I'll get my dad back in my corner

and I will pursue this dream of becoming the biggest thing from San Springs, Oklahoma. And the plan is to stop working and to fight full time now. And not yet, obviously. So I've got to get a few fights back in. The love I got from the UFC is really what changed. my mind. I was worried when I came back that they might not like the way I left, you know,

but I never said anything bad about the UFC. UFC did everything that they told me they were going to do, you know, and I've done so many things that I thought was going to better my life for my family, and we just, we have different paths, and that's okay, and I'm okay with it. I'm ready to move on, find out who I am again, which is Jimmy the Brick Flick, and I'm going to, to prove to all the people in the world, you know, how good I am. That was actually one of the main questions I've continued to get was, did you, did people feel like you burn any bridges? And you're absolutely right, because you didn't say anything bad about the UFC.

You said they did everything they said they were going to do. They took care of you. The one concern you had was being set up for life after fighting, 401K benefits, things like that. You thought the fighters themselves, before you got into the UFC, were a little bit, I guess I'll say short-sighted for not coming together and banding together at a certain point. But you never actually straight up, you know, said anything horrible about the UFC. You just said, I wish this would happen. I wish this would happen. The fighter should have done

this well before I came along. Did you get any blowback at all from the UFC or the matchmakers or anything like that? Or was this a straight welcoming with open arms? Thank you. I'm so glad you're coming back. Yeah, well, outside of the message I got from you yesterday, you were the first one that contacted me and came straight to the source. I gave you a breakdown on what was going on. Shortly after, I guess the source had got to Mick Maynard. And Mick Maynard, the guy has supported me.

The guy helped me get to the Tuesday night contender to the UFC. And he understood my retirement. And he was the one that had the UFC reach out to me. personally one of their employees reached out to me and thought that I had already said I wanted to come back. And they were wanting me back in the Asada immediately. They were very happy to hear that I was interested. And it just motivated me more. I've been back in the gym for a week.

A month ago, I hadn't been doing nothing. I woke up off the couch and I ran a 5K, which is 3.1 miles. and I did it for a fundraiser. I ran it in 25 minutes and 30 seconds off the couch. What I'm saying is I'm an athlete. It's in me. That's what I am. I don't know how long it's going to take the UFC to get me back in there,

but I only need two months. I don't even think I need two months, man. I just, I love this stuff. I strive for this stuff. I'm going to have more time. My girls want to be back in the gym occasionally, so my time will be managed better. I'm just finding my happy place.

And like I said, the time is now and the circumstances are unfortunate, but all I can do is move on with life. And people live a way tougher life than me. You know, there's way things, things that happen way worse than just me feeling like I have to start over. April of 2021, I asked you, this is an MMA retirement. We know how these MMA retirements work. They usually don't stick. asked you, are you done? And you said, yes, I'm done. Maybe I'll do a grappling event or something

like that. But as far as M.A goes, I'm done. In the back of your mind and thinking about it 15 months later, are you surprised we're having this conversation right now? Yes. I'm very surprised. If you were to ask me three weeks ago, I would have never fought. This stuff has really just happened over time. I've had it in the back of my head about missing it, like you said, doing grappling. I did almost do a grappling tournament or grappling match about a month to go to, all leading up into this trying to open my gym and do this. And that's when we realized, you know, I'm not done, you know.

And I still have a lot of potential. I feel I'm a high prospect. And the flyweight division is very open for me to come back and make a statement. I don't know who they'll throw at me, but I do believe that Little Fig deserves the first option based on the fact that me and him was supposed to fight. So I would love to welcome that fight back to him if he would like it and the UFC would like it because out of all the fighters, he deserves it the most. I did, you know, pull out soon enough for the UFC, but he ended up having to take some time off, didn't get a fight right off the bat. So I think he deserves the first option.

If that's just the UFC, thanks. But I'm open for everybody. I don't care about money. I don't care about the fame. I'm doing this because this is a sport I love. It's what I'm good at. And I'm going to come back and show everybody how good I am. So with this USADA thing, once you retire,

Henry Suhudo is going through this right now. You got to spend six months in the pool before he can be cleared to fight again. So we're thinking right now, You'd be cleared by like January. So we're thinking early 2023, we see the return of, of the brick. Not necessarily. It's up to six months.

So it can be sooner. And with the flyweight division, the stuff behind me, my story, my name, the way I left the UFC. And your boy is the only person in UFC history to pull off a flying triangle with no fans. yeah with no fans so I've never got to fight in front of these UFC fans at least that's what they deserve and I know when I come back I got to make a statement if I come back and I don't make a statement it could hurt me so I have a lot of a lot of pressure with coming back but I also don't have pressure because I feel I ain't got nothing to lose no more I mean everything's on the table now I mean I'll I'll im and in myself and tell everybody to everything, you know.

People can dog me for whatever. You know, this happened. I quit for this reason, but I'm coming back because kind of the same reason I quit is what kind of failed. And it's what it is. It's life. And I'm not done. All I cared about was whether the UFC

wanted me back. I don't care about nobody else, man. The UFC and my girls, and I asked my daughters about it. And they told me 100 times they would love for Daddy to be back. They would love to be in the gym. gym and it melted in my heart. And them girls in the sports, the sport of mixed martial art is

the two things I love the most right now. Does your dad know that you're back in the pool and everything? Because I know you're trying to reconcile there and get that relationship cooking again. You want him to be in your core at some point. Has he been made aware that you're coming back? Not exactly the way everything happened yesterday. I wasn't aware that I was going to be back in the pool. I did shoot him a message and told him to give me a call today. And a couple weeks ago, we went out on the water. We spent the whole day with the girls and my mom and my dad. And I said they've been spending time on my kids.

That was my main focus. And now I have an opportunity to build from there and just make so many things happen for my life, for me and for my girls. And that's my main focus now. It's just I want to be happy. And I want to try to pursue this full time and hopefully get back in there, get me another bonus and then start fighting full time. A lot has happened in this division since you retired. We had some, we don't even have finality on the Brandon Moreno, Davis and Figuerreto saga yet. But Brandon wins the title, loses it back to Figurato.

Now Kai Kar, France is going to fight Moreno for an interim title. Figgy's hoping to fight again at the end of the year. we've seen some prospects emerge like Muhammad Mahayev who had a great win over Cody Dürden, the man that you hit the flying triangle on. He had a flying neon and then submitted. So when you say you see the divisions wide open, I'm curious just your thoughts overall on the landscape at 125, like what you've seen, what stands out to you, like the title picture. Do you feel like everything's wide open right now or there's paths, this maybe like the doors open a crack, you just have to run through it, which is sort of your, uh, your, your,

look at the 125 pound division currently right now. Well, my thing is before I left the UFC, I mean, they offer you fights left, right. They want you in short notice. They want you then, there, now, yesterday, you know. They want you at all times, you know, and Kevin Holland is the man of that, you know, and he's let it be known. If you're that guy, you can make that money. You can build those contracts.

You can get those big fight. look at Alex Pierre just fought not ranked, fight the number like five or six guy, now he's six in the world, you know. That's what I mean. The division is open, you know, like you come in and take the right fight. You're there.

You're knocking on the door. When I left the UFC, I was ranked 21 in the world. When I come back and I pick up a win, I imagine I'll be right back in that pool. And then another win after that is just going to catapult me. And what I mean by is there's so many guys in the division that are looking for fights. And, I mean, you got Tim Elliott ranked.

You got the guy fighting Matt Schnell this weekend. We got Matt Schnell. We got Brandon Royval. He's up in the top five again. There's just so many guys. But with the way the champs are fighting, now Taya France just got up in there. I mean, there's so many open fights at Flyway. And if I'm focused on fighting in my –

Girls, I have more opportunities to step up on shorter notice. I can stay ready and I don't have anything else distracting me. My main focus is going to be the UFC and my girls. And when I don't have my girls, it's the UFC. It's promoting myself. It's building my brand, you know, leaving a legacy, trying to find endorsements. Like I'm trying to make this happen. I'm trying to become a full-time UFC fighter.

and now is the time and I'm not looking back. Is the goal just finishing the business you feel was left unfinished? I know it's about your girls and, you know, it's about the UFC and just trying to finish the business you felt is kind of unfinished at this point. But is it the title? Like what's more important? Just riding this out, closing the book on this all together with all the potential you have. Or is it getting up to a title, winning the belts? Like, what's the main objective here?

what's the main goal at this comeback outside of taking care of your girls? Honestly, it's leaving a legacy, leaving something behind. I believe that with my skill set, my fan base, my story, that if I go back to fighting, make a few more chapters for the book that I wanted to do, it'll actually prevail into something bigger. I'm a Brazilian jihitsu black belt. I want to do seminars. I'm an undefeated UFC fighter right now,

but I didn't establish that enough to brand, myself the way I would like to brand myself for the remainder of my life. And if you brand yourself right, you have fallbacks for eternity, you know, like you got guys like Connemar Greger making whiskeys. You got guys coming out with clothing lines. You've got, you know, endorsements that are setting these guys up and they don't even necessarily have to fight all the time, you know. And I'm looking to have something set up to where when I'm 40 years old, I will be able to,

you know, make money in endorsements, make money in my brand, who I become, you know, or what I make and what I build and hopefully be able to bring revenue in for my kids, whether they follow me as well in the sport of mixed martial arts or whatever they do. They're athletic just like their dad. So I don't know where they're going to go from here as well. But I just want to know when I, when I'm done, that I can actually put my gloves down into the cage like I'm supposed to. and retire the right way. I didn't retire the right way.

I did not think I was going to come out of retirement, though, because I was settled with the way it went down. If it was going to be for my family the rest of my life, that's what I wanted. And now it's still for my family, but it's for my girls. It's for me. It's for the flick name that I'm going to leave behind.

And honestly, I don't have boys. So my girls, if they get married, they're not even going to leave the flick name. So there's just so many things. And now, yes, the UFC gold is what I'm looking at. My coach, that's what started this whole thing. I put a meme out or a screenshot. My coach posted back in 2019.

First time training with him, I had a kickboxing fight. He said, Jimmy will dominate this kickboxing fight. I did that. I fought for the FCF freestyle cage fighting 125 titles. Jimmy's going to win that title. Jimmy won that title. I fought for the legacy LFA 125 titles. He said, Jimmy's going to win that title.

Not only did I win the title, I put my name in the history books and won that title in 38 seconds. The second fastest LFA win in UFC history behind Flyweight Brandon Ramon, Brandon Ravel. So then I go to the UFC, he says I'm going to, or to the Tuesday night contender, I'm going to win the UFC fight. I'm going to win that contract. And then Jimmy's going to become the UFC champion.

everything he posted has been checked off besides that last one. And now there's an opportunity for me to go check that off, become the biggest thing from San Springs, Oklahoma, and solidify Jimmy the brickflit. You had a couple of losses before the contender series, Chris Gutierrez, there's another one along the way, and then you had the four finishes in a row. And we spoke last April, you said,

even back then after those two losses, you had pondered retirement. You thought, maybe this isn't for me. And then you found this hunger and you went on this four fight streak just finishing everybody. And then you retired and now you're back right now. Is this the clearest? I know it just kind of happened for you. But is this kind of the clearest it's been like I know where my path is.

I'm all in on this more than I've ever been before. Even though it's been really a day for you, do you feel like at least with this one day, there's a path, here's a tunnel. There's no turning back. Like whatever happens over these next few years, I'm fighting. There's no stopping now. Man, the last few weeks, I've been low. I've been at my lowest for a while.

And I'm at my high when I have my girls, and I'm at my low when I don't. And I had to find out what else is going to give me my high when I don't have my girls. And two weeks is sitting at home just working, moping, and working moping. I'm not a guy. I mean, I like to enjoy myself and party, but that's not who I am.

I'm not going to try to throw myself. out there. I'm not going to party. I'm not going to go and rebel. That's not who I am. My rebellion is going to be getting in the gym and being who I was. I mean, that that's the only thing I know to do and the best thing for me and my girls. And that's what I'm going to do. And I'm going to pursue it 100% with everything I got. And when I have so much more time, time management, scheduling, everything. And I know how to do everything. now. I have a understanding of what I need to do, training too much, not training enough, sparring too much, not sparring enough. I've been doing this for 12 years. And now, like you said,

I have a straight road at what I want, my plan, and I ain't got no turns. Jimmy, I appreciate you speaking with me. I will let you go. You give me 20 minutes and cannot wait to see you back in there, man, the response has been universal praise with you coming back. People were like, whoa, this didn't have this on the bingo card in 2022. But here we are. Before we let you go, what's the message for your fellow 125ers? What's the message for the guys who have been competing that are now finding out that you're returning to this division? What do you want to say to your fellow flyweight in the UFC?

Hi, man. My name's already on notice. I think everybody already knows it is. I think I got a target on my back coming back. I mean, who wouldn't want to be my first fight coming back? That's where they got their best opportunity, you know? And I'm bluntly telling people, yes, I have not been training, all right? But I'm an athlete.

I wake up and I piss excellence when it comes to the UFC and to the MMA. I love this shit, dude. I have a work ethic that is unstoppable. And ain't nobody's stopping me now. and I have nothing but motivation from here on out and support from the UFC and Mick Maynard has just motivated me more. I have an awesome fan base, and I don't care who I fight. I know who I will be coming after for 100%. And that will be Tim Elliott.

I feel I have to give one win under my book or under me before I can get that Tim Elliott fight. but no like beat between me, me and beat Tim Elliott, but he had kind of said some stuff about me retiring and that how it could have been somebody else's contract. I'm like, well, go get it, man. I mean, like it's there, you know. Apparently they just put mine on hold. So they sign other fighters, you know,

and I don't think everybody understood why I went out the way I did. I didn't want to do that, you know. I mean, I didn't think I was going to be doing this either. But I am, I'm here. The UFC accepts it. all that matters. Any fight, 125 doesn't matter. Your boy's solid 142 right now, already in shape. You know, so like, I weigh less now than when I retired. And that's, you know, so it's crazy. Like, I am motivated and I have nothing but time and time with my girls. So you put those together

and I got enough time to chase this dream. And after a couple fights, it's going to be full time. Welcome back, Jimmy Flick. Welcome back, Jimmy the Brick flick. Coming to an octagon near you, maybe sooner rather than later, but maybe early 2020. It doesn't matter. I think everybody's happy that you're back. And if it makes you happy, man, I'm happy for you. So thank you for the time. Congratulations on getting back in the pool and continued success, my man. We'll see you back in there as soon as you can get back in there. Thank you, man. Thanks to the UFC.

Thanks to everybody that supports me. Let's go. I'm ready. I'm back. 2022, 2023. It don't matter. Flyweight. Let's go. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.