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#4. Current UFC welterweight Geoff Neal
Geoff Neal’s almost got a superhero situation going on with his regular job by day as a server and his brutal job as a UFC warrior by night. The knockout artist worked at a Texas Roadhouse in Dallas for more than 10 years as he broke into the fighting game.
Following his UFC 245 KO victory over Mike Perry, the rising star ran into a spot of bother. Throughout 2020, he struggled to secure another fight with the promotion. As a result, Neal ultimately had to return to his full-time working lifestyle to pay the bills. At number 10 in the welterweight rankings, Neal’s fledgling octagon career was fast becoming a painful case of being so close and yet so far.
Just over a year after UFC 245, Neal finally returned to the octagon for a clash with Stephen Thompson. Despite a valiant effort, Neal lost the grueling five-round war via unanimous decision.
He suffered a similar result against Neil Magny in May this year as well. Neal also suffered from kidney issues last year, the complications of which he believes have hindered his more recent performances. If ‘Handz of Steel’ ever wants to crack the coveted top five and be able to commit to fighting full time again, he needs to win his next fight. When exactly that fight will be is, sadly, anyone’s guess.
#3. Current UFC light heavyweight Dominick Reyes
If one goes on to Linkedin, Dominick Reyes is listed as a UFC Athlete/Freelance Web Developer. Giving Jon Jones one of the toughest, most debatable-end result fights of his career does not come up on the CV however.
The UFC light heavyweight tough guy has spent a lot of time as one half of the IT support team at Oak Hills High School in Southern California. He began the post in July 2016 after almost 8 years as a web developer.
‘The Devastator’ has been fighting professionally since 2014. Heading into his UFC 247 light heavyweight title clash with ‘Bones’ Jones, Reyes was undefeated at 12-0. Visibly frustrated with his controversial unanimous decision defeat, Reyes hasn’t been quite the same in the octagon since.
He fell to Jan Blachowicz via second-round TKO for the then-vacant light heavyweight strap at UFC 253. In his most recent fight, the southpaw warrior was rocked by Jiri Prochazka’s spinning back elbow in May this year.
Reyes is still young and athletic enough to reset and get back to his winning ways. Until then, he always has his diverse range of tech and web experience to fall back on.
