At 11-0 with nine first-round finishes, 23-year-old bantamweight Manny Bermudez has punched his ticket to the big show: the UFC.

The young submission artist will face Albert Morales at UFC on Fox 28 in Orlando on Feb. 24, and he took some time out of his suddenly hectic schedule to chat with FloCombat's Hunter Homistek.

Throughout the talk, Bermudez discusses the sheer excitement of joining the UFC, a near bout vs. Jimmie Rivera at UFC 219 in December, and much more.

Interview Highlights

On signing a UFC contract...

"Honestly, it didn't even feel real until like yesterday when they officially announced it. I almost felt like somebody was going to take it away from me. It was almost too good to be true."

On Morales...

"I actually watched that fight live. I was watching him, it was on that [Cub] Swanson [vs. Brian] Ortega card. I remember...I was watching these guys fight, and I'm like, 'Man, if you just gave me a chance at these guys...' And then, flash forward to a couple days ago, when they're like, 'Hey, you're fighting that guy that you were saying that you would beat up' and I'm just like, dude, this must be fate."

On his standup skills...

"I don't think it matters because they all get taken down anyway. How's their wrestling? That's the better question."

On a near fight vs. Rivera at UFC 219...



"I actually got a call to fight Jimmie Rivera, the No. 4 guy ranked in the world somewhere around Christmas, Christmas Eve I think it was. It was six days' notice. I was like 20 pounds, 25 pounds heavier than I should have been. We took it. We're like, 'Yeah, let's go.' For a second, I was like, 'Man, that's a lot of weight to cut.' But I was excited to take it and finally be in and have that challenge."

Why the Rivera fight didn't actually happen...



"I think they just wanted a guy with more experience. They ended up taking Marlon Moraes, the bald dude that just knocked out [Aljamain] Sterling. So I think the fight just ended up not going through. I think Marlon pulled out or said he wasn't ready. I was sitting there like, 'Man. I wouldn't have pulled out.'"

On representing New England's rising MMA scene...



"I'm just proud, man. Honestly, I love the fact that I'm coming from South Shore Sportfighting, I'm coming from the same gym that I started at when I was a lot younger. We got the same people in the camp. We got the same coaches. It's all just the people I started out with, and I'm so proud to have them behind me."





Watch Bermudez's two most recent fights below:

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Watch our breakdown of Bermudez's triangle: