Wolves fan Jai Herbert pledges to use UFC fight to shift focus from impending relegation

Exclusive interview: Wolverhampton fighter Herbert speaks about added motivation going into his UFC return, which could come hours after his boyhood club are relegated from the Premier League
Herbert (13-6-1; 9 KOs, 1 submission) faces Canadian debutant Mandel Nallo in enemy territory in Winnipeg on Saturday, hoping to bounce back from a split-decision defeat to Chris Padilla last March.

The 37-year-old’s return to the cage could unfortunately come hours after his boyhood club Wolves seal their crushing but “inevitable” fate of demotion back to the Championship after eight years in the top-flight.

“It’s a bit inevitable, I think they’re going to go down obviously,” Herbert told The Independent.

“The past few games, I know they lost to West Ham the other day but they’ve to get wins and they’ve been showing a bit of fight.

“But I’ll get the win for Wolverhampton on Saturday and that should give the people something to cheer about anyway.”
The “Black Country Banger” remained optimistic about his team’s chances of immediately returning to the Premier League, adding: “It’s one of them ones, man.

They’ll come back up next season.

“He [Edwards] has got the experience in the Championship and we’ve still got some decent players.

So I think they’ll come back up.”
Over a year on from his last outing in front of a partisan crowd at UFC London, Herbert will tasked with dealing with quite the opposite environment as he takes on a Canadian fighter in his own country.

But Herbert is not bothered by being the subject of hostility, saying: “I’m not ready to play the villain.

I’m just ready to go out there and get the win, get a knockout.

“I’ve dealt with it before.

I’ve been to different places where people have their own crowd.

But at the end of the day, they can’t fight for you.

That’s the way I see it, they literally can’t do nothing for you.

“It actually helps you to be honest, when they’re giving you stick and that and stuff, it gives you powers.

You’ve got to use it – it’s motivation.”
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