Kyle Stewart is set to make his UFC debut this coming Saturday Night at UFC Fight Night Brooklyn, facing Chance Rencountre in a welterweight division encounter.
The week leading into the fight has been a whirlwind one for Stewart, who just found out about the opportunity a few days ago.
“It happened on Saturday, my manager called me and said ‘hey, can you make weight by Friday?’ He told me and I was like its gonna be a struggle, but yeah I can make weight. He says ‘OK, let me see if we can get this’ and he told me about the opponent…Chance Rencountre. I was like ‘OK cool’, I went straight to the treadmill and started running. Then he called me back and he’s like ‘hey, they found somebody else to fight him.’ I think they were gonna have Dwight Grant step up from…he was already part of the roster, I was like ‘OK, whatever’ and still went going about preparing to fight Jared Gooden. Then he calls me again yesterday and I was on my way to go watch the Eagles game and he’s like ‘hey, you still need to make weight.’ I’m like ‘yeah” and he’s like ‘alright, we got you the fight.’ That’s when the whole whirlwind started and I contacted my coach to let him know and then I let my family know and today…its just doing all the medicals and getting everything, going to the gym here in a little bit. I then start getting my weight down,” says Stewart in an exclusive interview with Fightful’s James Lynch.
Stewart has previously defeated UFC veteran Estevan Payan and also was victorious on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series Episode 3.
Although Stewart is making his UFC debut in this bout, don’t expect the fighter to deal with jitters as the fight takes place.
“No, I don’t think I’ll have a problem with that. I don’t get jitters, I focus on…I’m an emotional person and the most emotional I ever got was when I fought James (Nakashima) there in front of all the troops in Virginia. That made me really emotional, I don’t foresee it being a problem. When I go in there, I focus on the job I have to do. I focus on my opponent and I hear my coaches, that’s all I focus on,” says Stewart.
UFC Fight Night Brooklyn takes place on Saturday, January 19 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York with Henry Cejudo and TJ Dillashaw headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which streams live on ESPN+.
