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One minute Yancy Medeiros was sitting around with Nate Diaz watching Fabricio Werdum defeat Travis Browne on UFC on Fox 11. The next minute Medeiros was taking a phone call and asking his manager to try and get his name next to Jim Miller's on the UFC 172 fight card.
At least that's how Medeiros said things went down when he found out that Miller's original opponent, Bobby Green had been forced from the card because of injury.
Appearing on the most recent edition of The MMA Hour, Medeiros said his manager called him on Saturday night to tell him Green had been injured, to which Medeiros replied, "I know," before imploring his manger to make the call to the UFC offering himself as a possible replacement.
The UFC and Miller both accepted Medeiros' offer, and just like that he went from facing Joe Ellenberger on the preliminary card to fighting on the pay-per-view portion of the card against the No. 9 ranked UFC lightweight.
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Medeiros said his thinking in asking for the Miller fight was simple, "He's a top contender and that's what I train for. If you're not training to beat the number one guy, then what are you training for?"
Medeiros is coming off a first round knockout over Yves Edwards at UFC Fight for the Troops 3 - sort of. That knockout went from the win column to the no contest column when Medeiros tested positive for marijuana metabolites after the fight. He addressed the positive test by saying, "Plain and simple, you test positive because you were doing it."
As for the chance that he will test positive again, Medeiros said, "I quit, and I'm trying to be a role model, especially to Hawaii." Medeiros also made the point that he didn't want his daughter hearing about her father failing another drug test.
With that positive drug test and suspension behind him, and a fight against a top ten opponent in front of him, Medeiros thanked Miller for taking the fight, but also pointed out, "I'm going to look for the finish, every second of every round."
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