Ray Borg (photo via UFC.com)

By Kelsey Mowatt

Ray Borg collected his second straight, “Performance of the Night” bonus at UFC Fight Night 60, and when you hear how the flyweight spent Valentines Day in 2014, you’ll quickly understand how it’s changed his life.

Of course, this time last year, Borg wasn’t even signed to the UFC. In April, 2014, the FIT NHB was tapped on short notice to battle contender Dustin Ortiz, and Borg lost by split decision. Since then, however, Borg has gone on to tap-out Shane Howell and now Chris Kelades, and has picked up an extra $100,000 in bonus money while doing so.

“We were talking, I was so excited because I got another bonus, and then I stopped, and I just soaked it all in for a quick second…” Borg relayed on a recent episode of Full Contact Fighter Radio, while discussing his reaction to winning another “POTN”. “I kind of opened my eyes real big and kind of freaked out, because this time, this exact time last year, I had a girlfriend for Valentine’s Day, and I had to take her to McDonalds to eat for Valentine’s Day, because that’s how I broke I was.”

“It’s just crazy to me, where I’ve come from this time last year, to this time this year,” Borg added. “It’s just amazing man. It’s just blowing my mind. There’s just so many things that I can finally do, which I was never able to do. You know, I’ve always called it out. I plan on sticking to my word. I want to do good things with my money, so my first bonus, I told myself I’d establish an account, second bonus I’ll  buy myself a vehicle, and by my third bonus I want to buy a house.”

Borg locked up his second “POTN” bonus by submitting Chris Kelades with a third round, Kimura. The 21 year-old turned to his wrestling and top game to surge ahead early in the bout, and Borg largely remained in control throughout, despite a determined effort from Kelades.

“I finally went ahead, and got to watch it when I got home, and I actually feel a lot better than from when I first watched it,” Borg said, when asked for his reflections on the February 14th fight. “During the fight I was actually a little disappointed because I thought the fight was boring, and I was like ‘oh man, I wanted to strike, what not’, but going back and watching the footage I realized it wasn’t boring. I was happy how dominant I was throughout the whole fight.”

Now that Borg has established himself as one of the UFC’s flyweights on the rise, it will be interesting to see who the promotion books him to fight next.

“If they want me to fight a top 15 guy, I’ll definitely fight a top 15 guy,” said Borg, when asked if he’s ready to call for a bout with a ranked, contender. “I fought a top 15 guy in my debut, so it doesn’t bother me…To me, Tom (Vaughn) is a great manager, I feel like my career so far has been built perfectly, things couldn’t have gone better as far as competition, so, whatever Tom feels is smart, and whatever the UFC wants me to do, I really don’t care who I fight.”