Julian Erosa is back in action at UFC Fight Night Denver, facing Devonte Smith in a featherweight division encounter.
The featherweight contender was looking for a second opportunity in the UFC, which finally happened due to a mix of appearing in Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series and manager Jason House.
“Yeah, it sucks, for me…when I moved here (to Las Vegas), I was training with a lot of UFC guys. Even guys in my own weight class and I did fantastic against a lot of top level dudes, that was nice anyways to move to Vegas and understand where I fell in line with UFC caliber guys. I know I’m one of the best featherweights in the world and I figured if I just trained hard and people see me in the gym doing this kind of stuff, having my way with some of these guys. I ran like its got to happen and then you get wins on top of it, after I moved here…I had two wins and one in the Contender Series. Then I was on a three fight winning streak, got a good knockout over a super tough opponent on the contenders. I feel like me and him were the toughest opposition for each other, I mean he’s 13 and 3 and I’m 21 and 5. I was a two and a half to one underdog, I mean Shevchenko’s sister got a contract and she was a nine to one favorite over her girl and she finished her decently. I mean she finished her, but it was one of those TKO’s where she is punching forearms and stuff. I knocked my dude out cold with a head kick and the kid that I fought was a two and a half to one underdog or I was a two and a half to one underdog, I figured with that kind of showing…it was only a matter of time. Like I said, there’s so many people knocking on that door and you got to have somebody there up front that they know they can trust and talk to and have that interaction with. Jason House is one of those guys,” says Erosa in an exclusive interview with Fightful’s James Lynch.
Erosa went 1-1-0 in his first run with the UFC, defeating Marcin Wrzosek and suffering a defeat to Teruto Ishihara.
While Erosa plans on getting the late stoppage win, it could happen in a variety of ways according to the fighter.
“I definitely see it going past the first round, obviously he thinks he’s going to get that knockout early. For me, take him to the second…take him to the third, start picking him apart. I’m one of those guys like a Diaz brother, I’m not going to kill you with one strike, I’m going to kill you with a thousand strikes. I plan on picking him apart, really mixing it up and down, in and out. We fight on four dimensions, that’s what I’ve been training…knees, elbows, takedowns, fake takedowns, coming back up, left, right, up and down, all over the place, flying, spinning, anything, submissions, all of the above. I’m ready for wherever the fight takes me, but definitely past the first round and then to get a late finish in the second or in the third,” says Erosa.
UFC Fight Night Denver takes place on Saturday, November 10 from the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado with Yair Rodriguez and Chan Sung Jung headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which airs live on Fox Sports 1.
