Fisher Thankful UFC Hasn’t Cut Him, Says It’s Do or Die

Spencer Fisher has lost two straight, and if he doesn’t win Saturday at UFC 120, he doesn’t expect the promotion to keep him.

In fact, he’s surprised the UFC hasn’t released him already.

“My back’s against the wall right now,” Fisher said last week during an episode of “Beatdown” on the Sherdog Radio Network. “The UFC has been really nice in keeping me around. A lot of guys, I know they’re cutting them after two losses. I was kind of worried after that last fight I’d been cut already, but they were nice enough to keep me around and I’m thankful for the position I’m at and I’m going to work my butt off for this upcoming fight. … It’s kind of a do-or-die situation with me right now. I gotta go out to win, whether that means me putting him on his back and submitting him, which I can do, or stand up and knock him out, and I can do that as well, I think.”

Fisher fights Curt Warburton in a preliminary lightweight bout. A member of the England-based Wolfslair camp alongside Michael Bisping, Warburton holds a 6-1 record that includes a first-round stoppage of “Ultimate Fighter 9” winner Ross Pearson. He will be making his UFC debut.

Fisher, on the other hand, has been fighting in the UFC for five years. He’s 8-5 in the Octagon, a respectable record in the deep lightweight division, but it’s his back-to-back losses that have him worried. Joe Stevenson finished him with elbows in October 2009, and Dennis Siver outpointed him in June. Fisher believes the UFC has kept him on the roster at least in part due to his entertaining style.

“I think I’m a fighter’s fighter,” he said. “I know what kind of fights I like to watch and I think I bring a lot to the table. I’ve kind of got away from that a little bit in my past couple of fights, but I’m going to go out there and get back to what got me here in the first place. That’s a fast-paced, in-shape Spencer Fisher.”

Although Fisher acknowledged that he’s seen only a small amount of tape on Warburton, he’s confident he can knock him out or take the fight to the ground if necessary.

“The tapes I’ve seen of him, he pretty much does the same things over and over again,” Fisher said. “He likes the standup, it seems like, but he’s not very fast. … Again, I think I can put him on his back if I want to. People don’t usually see me doing my wrestling because I’m the one trying to avoid the wrestling usually, but I’m more than capable of putting him on his back if I need to and submitting him.”

Fisher prepared for the bout at his gym in Moline, Ill., with Josh Neer and Jeff Joslin among his training partners. In the past he might have trained at other camps and worked on filling the holes in his game. He stayed home this time as part of a plan to focus on his strengths.

“This time I just kind of buckled down and stayed here,” Fisher said. “I just got back in shape and kind of got back to the things that got me here ... . I’ve always been worried about what the other guy was going to do and not so much what I was going to do. What I’ve gotten back to, the biggest thing is being in shape and I added a few more new tricks to my game.”

Check out the full interview (beginning at 46:20) with Fisher, who also discussed why he left the Miletich camp.