FINNEY’S FIGHTING FUTURE
The door of opportunity has arrived for Torrez Finney.
Now, the Jones County native has the chance to smash it in.
Days after improving his professional record in the MMA ranks to 6-0, Finney got the call he had been waiting on. He’s on the card to fight in Dana White’s Contender Series Oct. 10 in Las Vegas. But the winner will get an even bigger prize than a trip to Vegas. The victor will receive a UFC contract.
“This was my goal at the end of the year, to be signed to UFC, and right now it’s in my grasp,” Finney said. “I get chills saying, ‘I don’t have to wait on another opportunity.’ All I have to do is get the job done.”
Without a doubt, the stakes will be high for Finney’s bout. And there’s be more exposure, too. Unlike previous bouts, this one will be on a more mainstream streaming platform on ESPN+.
“This has been the one that I’ve been trying to line myself up to get. I really believe that I am on that next level,” Finney said. “I don’t just say that to say it, but it’s from the work that I have put on and from the guys I have gone against. I know I am ready and ready to prove myself.”
His opponent will be Yuri Panferov, nicknamed the “The Russian Polar Bear.”
As the nickname of Finney’s opponent suggests, he’s from Russia, having to move to the United States at the age of 14, and now resides in Kentucky.
“I feel like when people hear that a guy is Russian, they feel like they will be good grapplers. He is a solid grappler, but I grew up wrestling since I was in seventh grade at Clifton Ridge Middle,” Finney said. “I’ve got that wrestling experience and a purple belt in jiu-jitsu, and he has a brown belt, so we are equal there, as well.”
In fact, Finney even draws comparisons to the expected buildup of this match to when he was a junior at JCHS getting ready to wrestle for a state title against a wrestler, Aaron Gallagher, that he had recently lost to. Finney would go on to win that year, the first of two individual state championships for the Greyhounds.
“It’s like a one-shot deal, but you also think about guys that have lost as contenders and come back,” Finney said. “It’s not an end all be all, but it’s a big opportunity because you don’t know how many more you will get, and I have got to make the best of it.”
