Landon Vannata Expects Call from UFC with Win in RFA 36 Headliner

The casual MMA fan might not yet know his name, but Landon Vannata is certainly a fighter to keep eyes on.

The featherweight prospect has been tearing it up on the regional circuit and has already has a first-round TKO in Resurrection Fighting Alliance. After he fights on Friday’s RFA 36 card in Minnesota, the New Jersey native fully expects to be called up to the UFC.

Vannata is slated to fight Brazilian Raoni Barcelos in one of the featured bouts of the night and the Jackson-Wink combatant isn’t threatened by anything his foe brings to the table. While he’s not looking past Barcelos, he is confident that he will bulldoze him en route to much greener pastures.

“I think he’s pretty predictable in his standup,” Vannata told Sherdog.com in a recent interview. “He’s got good jiu-jitsu and wrestling on paper but his doesn’t transfer that well to MMA. I think he’s weak mentally and I think he’ll break when he’s bullied. Shots down the middle will pick him apart. I have to be wary of his right hand because it’s powerful and crisp. But he’s wild, so I have to be the cleaner of the two and beat him to the punch.”

Vannata believes he is more than ready to take that next step up the ladder and into the sport’s biggest spotlight: the Octagon. Though he admitted that nobody from Zuffa has directly contacted him or his management, he senses that the UFC’s scouts have him on their radar. With that in mind, Vannata understands that he not only has to win but he has to do it in spectacular fashion.

“Realistically, with a win over Raoni I think I should be picked up by the UFC right away,” he stated. “I’m one of the top prospects, I have seven finishes and I have wins in three different weight classes. I also train at the best gym in the country so without a doubt I am ready.”

That gym is the world-renowned Jackson-Wink MMA academy in Albuquerque, N.M.. Vannata said he got hooked on MMA when he was 11 and watched UFC 31. Pedro Rizzo was his childhood hero and the unbeaten fighter gleefully reflected that he watched “The Rock” knock out Josh Barnett thousands of times. It was then at that young age that he knew what he was going to do for the rest of his life.

“A few years [after UFC 31], I found a gym and started training jiu-jitsu and fell in love with it,” he reflected. “I started wrestling in high school and fell in love with that, too. I hated college and dropped out, so I came down here to train full time and fight. I knew this was where I wanted to be. It’s the best school in the world and we have the best training partners and coaches. It’s everything I could possibly need.

“It’s an absolute shark tank down here,” he chuckled in reference to Jackson-Wink MMA. “Every guy who trains here professionally is a top guy in his division and we have the baddest woman, too, in Holly Holm. The best way to describe it is that you come down here, put your nose to the grindstone, work your ass off, take your ass whippings and if you stick around, you’re going to get a lot better. I’ve been taking ass whippings since Day One. I don’t take as many anymore but we go at it day in and day out.”

The hard work and ass whippings he received over the years in the gym have certainly paid off. Vannata is on the verge of breaking into the sport’s biggest promotion, but all he needs to do first is conquer Barcelos. If he takes care of business, then maybe that phone call from the UFC will arrive.