Mansher Khera waited and waited… and waited some more.
When a call from his manager Jason House finally came, the timing and circumstances weren’t ideal – but Khera (9-0) found a way to emphatically make things work.
“I got the contract two weeks before the fight,” Khera recently told MMA Junkie. “I think my opponent was supposed to fight somebody else. I don’t know what happened. But then, two weeks before the fight, I got the opportunity, and of course, I was not going to turn it down. These opportunities come once in a lifetime, so I was like, ‘Hell yeah, man.'”
While it wasn’t the direct UFC call he’d hoped for, Khera was happy to accept a Road to UFC bout on short notice. On May 22, he dominated experienced Chinese fighter Aziz Khaydarov en route to a unanimous decision.
Khera sees room for improvement, despite sweeping the scorecards. He has already identified specific factors that suppressed his potential.
“It was a pretty sh*tty performance, to be honest with you,” Khera said. “Not getting the finish. If I had gotten the finish, I’d have been really, really happy. I was happy with my composure. I was happy with my composure and the things that I could control. I just know that there is so much more to my performance than I showed last night. I just felt like that was maybe me at 40 percent. I found out two weeks before. I literally got my visa last-minute. I was in Canada.
“… So everything that went into it was hectic and my time in Shanghai, I didn’t really have time to adapt to the time zone. It’s 12-hour difference. I was not getting any sleep. I had to cut weight and like I said, I didn’t have a big fight camp. So I had a lot of weight to lose. Everything was just hectic. If I’m being honest, I didn’t feel like my best self. But that’s the fight game. Everybody has something going into the fight. That helped me power through it because I knew my opponent had his own struggles as well.”
Khera, 33, is an accomplished BJJ black-belt, who transitioned fully into MMA in 2021. His record is unblemished and he won Fury FC lightweight gold in November.
While he’s a little on the older side for a fighter the UFC would typically onboard, Khera is an atypical talent. Complementing his abilities, Khera is a proud Indian-American, a group underrepresented in MMA.
Despite his self-criticism, the win certainly didn’t harm Khera’s chances of a real UFC call. Even though he’s a bigger lightweight, he’ll stay by the phone ready to accept whatever offer comes through.
“I haven’t heard anything from the UFC yet,” Khera said. “I’m just going off of what my manager is telling me. He told me that this is a really good opportunity and whatever happens after is going to lead me toward the path of being in the UFC. But what exactly? I’m not sure. I should fight out soon. He did tell me that this gets in the system. Now, I’m in the UFC system. I have my bloodwork done. I have my brain scan, everything, done. I just stay ready because who knows? It could be another short-notice fight pretty soon. I’m just trying to stay prepared so I’m in the gym today.”
