While his UFC debut in July against Terrion Ware could have gone admittedly better for Cody Stamann, being able to come out with a unanimous decision win is nothing to scoff at.
“That was a real short notice fight for me,” Stamann told MMAWeekly.com. “I had a little bit of an injury about two months prior to that fight, so I only had about eight to 10 workouts to get set for that fight.
“With eight to 10 workouts, I feel like my performance was pretty good, but my overall performance wasn’t great. I’m happy that I got the win, but I expect more from myself, and expect this next one to go a lot better.”
Though making one’s UFC debut can sometimes be overwhelming, Stamann feels he had prepared for the moment that it didn’t faze him.
“I really thought I was going to be in the UFC for the past two years,” said Stamann. “I’ve been imagining happening so many times that when it finally did happen I kind of felt like I had been there.
“People say they have really bad cage jitters the first time they fight in the UFC, but I didn’t really feel that. We went out and started hitting each other right away, and once you get hit that dusts off all the jitters anyway, and I was in the fight.”
Stamann (15-1) will seek to pick up his ninth win in a row when he takes on Tom Duquesnoy (15-1) in a 135-pound preliminary bout at UFC 216 on Oct. 7 in Las Vegas.
“Tom is a really good opponent,” Stamann said. “He is a really tough guy. He’s probably the best guy to come out of Europe. I think this is a really good fight for me because it’s the kind of fight that could put me on the map if I go out and beat him.
“I’m not going to say how I’m going to do it, but the thing is that I have to fight my fight. I have to take this fight where I know I can take it. I’m going to be the best Cody Stamann that’s ever gotten into the cage and it’s going to be too much for Tom.”
This article first appeared at News – MMAWeekly.com
