PHILADELPHIA – Dustin Stoltzfus is just happy to breathe.
Ahead of UFC 330, Stoltzus (16-8 MMA, 3-7 UFC) revealed his training camp was a bit different than ones in the past, largely due to nose surgery. He knew the nose breaks from a career of fighting had taken their toll. He just didn't know the full extent.
"It's been a bit of a layoff," Stoltzfus told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a pre-fight news conference Wednesday. "I just had so many cumulative nose breaks from my fighting career that was really effecting my breathing, my immune system, my sleep. I was really starting to notice it in some of my fights. After my last fight, I finally got it fixed. It takes a little while for it to heal up. So I just took the time with a little bit of buffer."
"... Sometime during last year, I know I was having trouble breathing, especially when I put my head down. In the last maybe three years or so, I've been having a lot of immune system problems. I've been getting sick a lot, also right before fights. It was really effecting my performance. Once I started realizing that my nose was really blocked up, the hope was clearing that up would open up my sinuses and let everything drain out properly and fix my immune system problems, which it seems to have done. ... I put it off a little bit, but it was definitely way overdue. But I noticed it here."
The procedure has already paid dividends. Stoltzfus said his pre-fight preparation was noticeably enhanced. He thinks cardio will prove to be a difference maker, particularly vs. opponent Mansur Abdul-Malik (9-1-1 MMA, 3-1-1 UFC).
"Definitely," Stoltzfus said. "The biggest thing is once I reach my exhaustion point, I recover a lot faster. Before, I would hit a certain level and then I'd hit a wall then it'd take about an hour to recover. Now it takes a couple minutes. So that's been really good. Sleep has been a lot better."
Nose aside, the other change for Stoltzfus this camp had been his location. He went back home to Germany, rather than doing camp at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas – the reason being Abdul-Malik also trains there. The two even have past experience working with one another.
"We like the matchup as far as the fighting style goes," Stoltzfus said. "We didn't really like the matchup due to that I usually do my camps at Xtreme Couture. That was a bit of a bummer, especially with just getting my gym set up. It was a lot easier to do camp back home in Germany this time. It ended up working out pretty good. We trained a little bit together. I think Mansur is a great guy. We don't know each other super well, but that was a bit of a shame getting my plans for camp derailed. Other than that, as far as the fight business goes, it's a good fight."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Dustin Stoltzfus took a deep breath before booking UFC 330 bout – but for good reason
