Fighters like Dong Hyun Kim may win their fair share of UFC bouts, but the South Korean star will never get a title shot with the way he fights.
At least, that’s what Siyar Bahadurzada thinks about “Stun Gun” and his controlling grappling.
In a recent interview posted by the UFC, “Siyar the Great” broke down his upcoming fight with Kim at UFC on Fuel TV 8 match in Japan’s Saitama Super Arena, heavily criticizing the perceived disrespect he’s gotten from his opponent:
When the UFC offered [Kim] the fight, he went out there and said ‘who is Siyar Bahadurzada, I don’t know him. I was expecting that the UFC would give me a better name or a higher profile fighter.
What is he talking about? He says he doesn’t know me? How many guys put Paulo Thiago to sleep? I’m pretty sure when he analyzed his tapes he knew who I was. I think he’s scared of me, and that’s why he said that.
True to his word, Bahadurzada is the only fighter to ever defeat Thiago by strikes, which occurred during a previous UFC on Fuel TV card in Sweden last April.
Not only did Bahadurzada defeat Thiago via KO, but he also did it in just 42 seconds.
Finishes like that are quite valuable to the UFC, which has notably been cutting and displacing less exciting fighters who don’t entertain the crowds in victory and/or defeat. Bahadurzada notes that fighters like that make MMA more “beautiful,” while men like Kim aren’t helping themselves:
We need guys like ‘Showtime’ Pettis to make this sport more beautiful. We need guys like Anderson Silva to introduce this sport to the mainstream. But guys like Dong Hyun Kim, he makes the sport ugly.
He stalls and controls people and doesn’t do damage. Why would you do that? It doesn’t make sense. If he fights like that, he will have 30 more UFC fights and he will never get a title shot because people don’t want to see a boring champion.
Both fighters will have the chance to make their case at UFC on Fuel TV 8 on March 2, with the winner arguably cementing himself a spot in the “Top 10” of the welterweight division.
In addition to that bout, the rest of the event features a heavily-stacked main card with Wanderlei Silva vs. Brian Stann as the headliner, a heavyweight tilt between Mark Hunt vs. Stefan Struve, Takanori Gomi vs. Diego Sanchez and a middleweight clash with Yushin Okami vs. Hector Lombard.
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