At UFC 247, the Price Was Right for James Krause
For Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight James Krause, Feb. 7 was a whirlwind day. At 2:30 p.m. local time, he was a corner man having lunch with his team as they waited for the ceremonial weigh-ins later in the day. A little over an hour later, he was a newly-minted middleweight set to be a replacement opponent for Trevin Giles at UFC 247, on just 18-hours’ notice.
“I was actually at lunch when we heard [Antonio] Arroyo was out,” Krause told Sherdog. “They said, ‘Hey, they just carted Arroyo out on a stretcher.’ I said, ‘Well, I’ll take that fight.’ That was the gist of it. I really didn’t think that much of it. This was probably 2:00 or 2:30 when we were at lunch. They had to leave for the venue at 3:30 for weigh-ins. So, they’re getting me riled up and they’re like, ‘Look, [Giles] has to go to weigh-ins.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m not going to weigh-in, stand across from this dude and we don’t make a deal. I’m going to end up looking like a jack-wagon, because I said I was going to do this, and now you guys didn’t want to make a deal.’ So, we had until 3:30, it comes and goes, and I’m [thinking that] obviously they weren’t interested in it. No big deal, I’ll just stay the course. [When] 3:45 rolls around, I get a call and they say, ‘He’s in.’ And I’m like, ‘No, I’m not. You don’t understand how this works.’ Anyway, we get the money going back and forth [and] we get the deal done, I hopped on a shuttle and I weigh-in minutes before you guys actually see me on the ceremonial weigh-in.”
In his conversation with Sherdog, the 33-year-old spoke about the new multi-fight contract he received from the organization and his feeling of increased value. Krause also explained why he believes he did not do the UFC a favor, about telling his wife the last-minute news, the internal decision-making process on why he took the fight, the fight itself, why he believes he won and his frustration with the performance. In addition, he spoke about the importance of maximizing moneymaking opportunities in the sport and his good fortune of not needing the money from fighting to live a comfortable life.
