Mike Swick, who goes back to the very first season of the reality show “The Ultimate Fighter” has re-signed with the company and is signed to face Alex Garcia on July 11 at UFC 189.
Swick owns a 15-5 professional MMA record, and he has a vast wealth of time and experience in the MMA game dating back to his debut in 1998. Swick had a run where he went 9-1 in the UFC, but he closed his stay with the company out in December of 2012 when he was KO’d by Matt Browne to cap his career with a 1-3 streak. Since then Swick has not fought, but he moved to Thailand and opened a gym.
Garcia is a 27 year old who has a 2-1 UFC record and is 12-2 overall. He has gone the distance these last couple of fights, including an August 2014 loss to Neil Magny. He is getting a chance to fight a higher profile opponent in Swick and he should be trying to make the best of it, as going a nondescript 2-2 is bad for his upward mobility in a crowded weight class.
Here is the thing to keep in mind: Swick already had that successful run in the UFC and it is well known that he was a very good fighter. Now the 35-year-old fighter is returning after a layoff of several years, and it would be easy to think of Swick as the broke older fighter returning for the payday. But, considering that he has been pursuing establishing an MMA gym abroad, it is hard to say he has done anything else but live and breath fighting this whole time. If Swick has added a depth of experience and perhaps cerebral calm to what was already a very good mix of skills, he may be returning to try to take his game to the next level. Remember, after the 9-1 run with the UFC, he left after going 1-3 in the next four fights and could have stayed away never to return.
This puts Garcia in a dangerous situation, as he would like to avoid a two-fight skid. But you cannot escape the feeling that Swick is coming back ready for bigger challenges and that Garcia is gonig to be in trouble faced with overwhelming intangibles.
