When Frank “Twinkle Toes” Trigg (20-8) returned to the UFC in 2009 after a four year hiatus, he admits he made a mistake dropping back down to welterweight and trying to take on the top guys right away.
“I had a huge Tito Ortiz head and everything. But when I came back, I tried to go down to 170 and I should’ve just fought at 185. I should’ve started slow, not fought on TV, tried to build myself back up physically. But I said, ‘Put me on TV, let me fight the best guys’ and it didn’t work out.”
No, it didn’t work out. In Trigg’s return to the UFC he lost via first round knockout to Josh Koscheck and then suffered the same fate against Matt Serra five months later.
Prior to that, Trigg had been on a nice run at middleweight and had even positioned himself as one of the top-10 185-pounders in the world at one point.
Trigg will return to middleweight this weekend for the first time in over two years when he takes on 25-year-old Welsh boxer John “The White Mike Tyson” Phillips (13-3) at BAMMA 6 in London, England.
Trigg already has one win under his belt since leaving the UFC. He scored a first round TKO over Roy Neeman at Israel FC: Genesis back in November. However, that fight took place at a catchweight of 181-pounds, and it is also worth noting Neeman only had one pro fight on his official record going into the bout.
Now 39-years-old, will “Twinkle Toes” be able to regain his status as one of the top 185-pounders outside the UFC, or has the back-to-back KO’s and weight changes slowed down the dance of this veteran?