Vinc Pichel Shares His Proudest UFC Moment

Ten years have passed since Vinc Pichel enrolled in “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 15. Pichel (14-2, 7-2 UFC) made it as far as the semifinals, where he dropped a decision to Al Iaquinta. “From Hell” officially joined the UFC in December 2012, and the Factory X standout will compete in his tenth assignment as he faces Mark O. Madsen at UFC 273. In his latest appearance, Pichel upended Austin Hubbard by unanimous decision at UFC on ESPN 29, and he will ride a three-fight winning streak in his next battle. Over the years, Pichel has participated in many wars inside the cage, but there is one victory he cherishes above the rest.

“I think the wildest thing that I feel like I’ve done, that I’m most proud of is beating Anthony Njokuani at UFC 173, which is basically 100 UFCs ago,“ Pichel told Sherdog. “A lot of people don’t know this because I don’t really boast about it or tell people but when I fought Njokuani, that was a really scary fight for me. You know, I got paid $8,000 to fight that guy. In the first 30 seconds, he broke my left orbital and gave me double vision for the next year of my life. That, to me, is probably my proudest moment in fighting because that’s when I learned that I could do things I never thought I could do. I beat Njokuani with double vision, I beat the hell out of him in that fight. A lot of people don’t know this because I don’t really tell a lot of people, but I would say that’s the proudest moment, my craziest memory that I have in fighting. Then, going to the hospital, get surgery and three more surgeries on my face after that to correct my vision.”

In the same interview, the 39-year-old also stated that he’s not even thinking about retiring, talked about his next opponent, shared some professional secrets on making weight and staying young, and more.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(01:02) His pets joined the interview
(01:18) Commenting on never missing weight
(02:07) Dealing with Madsen’s wrestling and aiming for a finish
(03:43) His training partners for this fight
(04:18) His improvements since moving to Factory X
(05:06) Why he switched camps before his fight with Hubbard
(05:52) Why his fight with Madsen was moved to March from its February slot
(07:23) The secrets for enjoying a second youth as far as results go
(08:23) Playing video games
(08:54) Reflecting on his future in this sport
(09:57) Weighing in the decade he spent in the UFC
(10:54) Unveiling that his craziest memory from the past decade involves his victory at UFC 173
(12:27) How would his life be if he didn’t discover MMA
(13:48) His thoughts on whether the fighters’ economic situation has improved over the last decade
(15:00) His favorite in the Alexander Volkanovski vs. Chan Sung Jung fight
(15:30) Picking Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan
(16:06) His walkout song
(16:20) Outro and acknowledgments

Tudor Leonte started writing about mixed martial arts in 2013 for Italian media outlets. His journey with Sherdog began in 2018 and he now covers One Championship and countless European shows. You can follow him on Twitter @MrTudorLeonte.