Calvin Kattar has always been one to keep his focus squarely on the assignment.
At UFC Austin tonight, Calvin Kattar will headline opposite Josh Emmett. The bout will be Kattar’s 11th trip to the Octagon.
Back in 2019 when Kattar was 3-1 in the promotion, he was scheduled to face ex-UFC veteran Ricardo Lamas at UFC 238. Being that Lamas hails from the site of that pay-per-view, Chicago, Illinois, Kattar was anticipating an inhospitable reaction from the crowd. In fact, he was looking forward to it.
In the end, it didn’t matter, as Kattar made short work of Lamas with a first-round KO. Following this win, Kattar would again utter similar rhetoric when he faced the recently retired Zabit Magomedsharipov in Zabit’s native Russia. Unfortunately for Kattar, that fight did not register a similar result, with Kattar losing via unanimous decision.
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As mentioned, Calvin Kattar will be facing Josh Emmett in the main event of UFC Austin tonight. And there will be no hostile crowd to worry about, as it will be in a neutral location for Massachusetts’s Kattar and Arizona’s Emmett.
Ahead of UFC Austin, MMA News had a chance to catch up with Emmett to speak about his preparations ahead of the fight.
As the minutes draw closer to the event, below you’ll find an article that covers Kattar welcoming the boos from the Chicago crowd three years ago, along with his explanation for such an attitude.
The following article is presented to you in its original, unaltered form, courtesy of The MMA News Archives.
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JUNE 6, 2019, 12:29 PM]
Headline: Calvin Kattar Eager to Get Booed by Chicago Masses
Author: Clyde Aidoo
Getting met with a chorus of boos from heckling strangers is not an experience that anybody enjoys, much less anticipates with delight. Well, anybody but Calvin Kattar.
This Saturday at UFC 238, Calvin Kattar (#15) will take on #10-ranked Ricardo Lamas inside the United Center in Lamas’s hometown of Chicago, Illinois, and Kattar is prepared to fight an opponent worthy of his ranking and the cheers. And the boos? Kattar is more than prepared for that as well: (Transcript via MMA Junkie):
“Awkwardly
enough I’m pretty excited about it,” Kattar told MMA Junkie Radio. “I’ve never
been to Chicago, and I got a bunch of people supporting me. As much as I’m
looking forward to the boos, I might be hearing some cheers as well. We pack
the house. You know how the Boston crowd does.”
But outside noise aside, Calvin Kattar knows that all that matters in terms of wins and losses are the two men inside the Octagon who will be slinging leather, and Lamas has proven to be pretty good at that:
“I
have a lot of respect for what the guy has done in the sport,” Kattar said of
Lamas. “I’m excited to test myself against a guy who has fought for the title
and is a top contender, just to show where I stack up in the division against a
guy who calls himself the best.”
Ricardo Lamas’s last outing concluded with his arm raised at the expense of Darren Elkins last November. Calvin Kattar is also coming off of a victory, defeating Chris Fishgold via TKO in the first round. Kattar has only one UFC loss in four fights, so Ricardo Lamas would be wise to return the respect shown to him by Kattar, whether or not his hometown crowd follows his lead.
What is your prediction for this featherweight bout? Will Calvin Kattar silence the Chicago crowd or will Ricardo Lamas give them cause to erupt?
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