Outside Source
Stirling arguably faced his biggest step up in competition against Cutelaba at UFC Fight Night 279 on Saturday in Las Vegas. Cutelaba caught Stirling in a standing guillotine early on, eventually dragging him to the ground. While Cutelaba’s guillotine seemed seriously threatening at one point, Stirling managed to pull his head out. Both fighters were going back and forth in the second round before Stirling reversed a takedown and unleashed lethal ground-and-pound on a seated Cutelaba to secure a stoppage win.
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Stirling subsequently revealed that he had never faced adversity like he did when Cutelaba jumped the guillotine. The undefeated Kiwi believes the experience of surviving that adversity will add to his mental arsenal. However, Stirling notes that while he faced such a threat in a fight for the first time, he regularly drills being in stressful positions at the City Kickboxing gym in Auckland, New Zealand.
Valuable Experience
“He was stronger and dangerous a little bit longer than I expected,” Stirling said in a post-fight interview with the UFC. “He had me in some bad positions. I really had to work out of it. I had never really been put there before in a fight. So, it was like a good finishing moment, and also more rounds in the bank, more experience in those bad positions to work out of mentally… CKB, at the gym I know not just how to play the hammer, but how to play the nail.”
Stirling (10-0) has five UFC wins — with two finishes — since making his debut in 2024. Meanwhile, Cutelaba (20-12) has now dropped two of his last three outings.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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