Armed with a new nickname, Hugh 'The Preacher' Pulley has a strategy for CFFC 119: 'Be like water'

With his eyes set on eventually capturing a UFC belt, Hugh "The Preacher" Pulley sees CFFC 119 as another pivotal stepping stone on the way to his ultimate goal.

Fighting out of Tampa, Florida, Pulley (8-6) is set to clash with fellow welterweight Collin Lubberts (6-2) at Thursday's CFFC 119 card, which streams live on UFC FIGHT PASS from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa.

To Pulley, Lubberts offers a polished and well-rounded skillset that will certainly prove to be a challenge come fight night.

"He's pretty strong everywhere," Pulley said. "This is kind of what I wanted to fight him for because I wasn't seeing weak points anywhere. I like those types of opponents. Like, when I do see a weakness upon the time of the fight, I can find it. He's pretty solid everywhere – good boxing, good takedown offense, good takedowns, good kicks. Everybody that I'm going against now is supposed to be UFC-worthy or going towards the UFC. I trained over the top this time."

Fueled by his faith and a passion for the sport, and with a decade-long pro career already established, Pulley is on the chase for success in the UFC. Though he's suffered two setbacks in his last two fights – at CFFC 106 and CFFC 114 – he says those came after losing sight of his principles.

"Sometimes people try to use God as a genie and stuff like that, but sometimes he gives you the skills you need to use; you've just gotta go out there and do the job," he said. "I feel like the last couple fights, I didn't do that. I was just kind of contingent on God to work, but God already instilled things in me over time."

The biggest reason that Pulley is returning to a CFFC card is because they breed those aforementioned "UFC-worthy" fighters. He's lost at the hands of CFFC fighters three times before (the other during CFFC 71 in 2018), but five months removed from CFFC 114, Pulley is set on getting his first Cage Fury Fighting Championships win.

"The goal is always to get the belt," he said. "And for a long time, I'd been fighting kind of in circles and with no leadership and no areas to point to. (To fight for) CFFC is just acknowledgement that I'm in the right place and going to the right places."

Pulley, now 34, became hooked on MMA in his early 20s after wrestling in high school and in college.

"Whenever I used to wrestle, when I lost, I would be like, 'Man, I just want to hit the guy in the face,'" he recalled. "I thought that if you could wrestle and go for submissions, you could continue on with the game. I thought (MMA) was just an extension of the fight game, and that's when I fell in love with combat sports."

It took a district loss as a senior in high school for Pulley to begin looking elsewhere in combat sports. He wrestled some in college, but after learning muay Thai and other forms of MMA, Pulley saw a path open up to turn professional and took it. His first amateur fight came just three years after that district loss.

Before "The Preacher" nickname, Pulley went by "The Wolverine." The change marked a turning point in his life and a desire to apply that change to his fighting career.

"'The Preacher' is just my step up in faith," Pulley said. "It just represents me going out there knowing that I have a greater purpose, knowing that I have a greater platform to reach out."

Above all else, Pulley is looking to rebound from back-to-back losses next Thursday and, in his words, "go in there and be like water."

ARTICLE BY SETH FISHER