UFC 312: Jimmy Crute credits religious awakening for resurrecting his fighting career and saving him from UFC scrap heap

Jimmy Crute doesn’t like to think of where he’d be without God in his life, but ahead of his long awaited return to the Octagon, he has opened up on his religious awakening.

Jimmy Crute is blunt when asked what his life would look like if it wasn’t for his religious awakening last year.

“I’d probably be smoking cones and telling everyone how good I was,” the light-heavyweight told this masthead ahead of his long-awaited return to the Octagon at UFC 312.

“I don’t even like to think about my life without God, man.

“Jesus Christ saved my life.”

In July 2023, it looked as though Crute’s UFC career might be over.

Moments after his second round submission defeat to Alonzo Menifield at UFC 293, Crute tore off his gloves and tossed them to the canvas.

It was unclear whether he had retired, but UFC fans barely heard from him for months as his future hung in the balance.

“I just needed to step out of the pressure cooker for a little bit,” he said. “There were no conscious decisions, I just did what was right for me.

“I got to do a lot of things I’ve always wanted to do, but haven’t been able to because I’ve been in camp. I did a bit of travelling and am just enjoying life again.”

Crute hit the scales at 206 pounds for his long-awaited comeback. Picture: Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Crute now admits to occasionally getting caught up in the hype after bursting onto the scene as a UFC debutant at just 22 years old.

He said Jesus was “knocking at my door for a while” before he finally opened it during his longest absence from the cage.

The change, he says, has been immense.

“The biggest problem was that this sport was my identity,” he said ahead of his comeback fight against Brazil’s Rodolfo Bellato. “I didn’t have an identity outside of being a fighter.

“So now, I’m whole and I can bring that to the fight.”

Feeling the love at Wednesday’s open workouts. Picture: Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Reinvigorated and refreshed, he even says he missed the dreaded weight cut down to light heavyweight limit of 205 pounds.

“I used to hate the weight cut, I used to hate the media, but I’m just so grateful to be here now,” he said. “If you told my 12 year old self that he’d be here now, he’d be over the moon.

“I just feel really grateful.”

Long time training partner and good mate Jake Matthews – who revealed his conversion to Islam to this masthead in 2023 – has noticed a big change in his old mate.

“I’m stoked for him, and it’s just more humility – he’s more humble,” said Matthews, who fights Francisco Prado this weekend. “He was fighting ex-title contenders and that can go to your head a little bit.

Crute celebrates his debut UFC win with coach Sam Greco in 2018. Picture: Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

“I experienced that in my first couple of UFC fights, where my head just went into the clouds, and I got humbled.

“So that’s the biggest difference – his humility. He’s easy to talk to, easy to get along with, and if anything it’s brought us closer together.”

Crute still wants to make a run at the light-heavyweight title, but says he now feels like he’s doing it for the right reasons.

“Whatever God has in store for me, I’m just going to walk the path,” he said. “I can see a title in my future.

“But I don’t want it just because I have to want it. I used to say I wanted it because I thought that was the right thing to say.

“But I genuinely want to be a world champion now. There’s a big part of me that still wants to chase that.”

Originally published as UFC 312: Jimmy Crute credits religious awakening for resurrecting his fighting career and saving him from UFC scrap heap