Leonard Garcia’s hit a bit of a slump lately, and he knows it. Having won only three of his last eight fights, all of which went down to a split decision, things haven’t been going easily.

“I’ve been taking so many fights back-to-back, and I haven’t had time to be in the gym, no time for drilling, no time for anything, it’s basically been just getting into shape to fight again. And I’ve had so many opponent changes that I never have a chance to really sit down and focus on one guy, because I’ll be scheduled to fight somebody and then at the last moment they’ll switch it to somebody else.”

As a result, his camp’s going to focus on taking few fights this year to adequately prepare for each matchup.

“I fought six times last year, and it really hurt me more than anything.”

In the meantime, Leonard’s been focusing back on his wrestling and also getting his blackbelt in jiu-jitsu later this year.

About his fight with Chan Sung Jung, aka “The Korean Zombie,” Garcia admitted having never seen the twister before. However, right after the loss he was in the back room, training with Greg Jackson, and making sure he’d never be caught in a move like that again.

As for his transition to the UFC from the WEC, Garcia stated,

“It’s been great; of course, I was in the UFC before, and to come back at a different weight class where more people knew who I was, and had more exposure, it’s been much better for me. I’m accepted better in the UFC.”

For UFC 129, Garcia threw a viewing party for the armed forces at the Nellis Air Force Base. I asked him about what the armed forces mean to him:

“The armed forces, I mean, they’re our heroes. They’re great people and they really do risk life and limb for us to do what we do, just in life, period. So any time I get an opportunity to do anything with the troops, I’ll do it.”

Leonard’s been asking for a big fight against a guy like Michihiro Omigawa, but may be slated to fight Alex “Bruce Leroy” Caceres, instead.

By: Kevin Leong