Cody Stamann is competing in arguably the biggest fight of his professional MMA career at UFC 228, facing Aljamain Sterling in the featured fight of the preliminary card.
UFC Bantamweight Champion TJ Dillashaw recently headlined UFC 227, defeating Cody Garbrandt by first round knockout and Stamann has solid reasoning as to why the champion retained on that night.
“That’s one of those fights…honestly, that I thought TJ was going to win. Just based on the solid fact that once you beat somebody, I mean there’s a serious mental block for the guy that you beat and you. I know when I used to wrestle guys and I need to face them multiple times and I beat them in that first match, they knew that they weren’t going to comeback and beat me. I knew in my head that I could beat them, for Garbrandt to come over that mental hump would have been crazy impressive. I know the two guys, Cody fights the same way every fight. He’s got crazy power in his hands, he’s got great boxing. I’m not taking anything away from him, but he is kind of predictable…you know what your gonna get out of him. TJ is continuing to evolve, you know what I mean. You see him going to different camps, you see him going to train with Lumachenko. He’s learning new tricks and he’s getting better all the time, TJ’s the guy to beat in that division. I mean he came out and he fought Cody with his hands down in the picket, boxing. Exactly the opposite of how you think you would want to fight a guy who has heavy hands like that and he knocked him out at his own game, it was crazy impressive. Man…Dillashaw’s a killer,” says Stamann in an exclusive interview with Fightful’s James Lynch.
Stamann currently sits at #10 in the UFC Bantamweight Division rankings, which means that he could be a few wins away from challenging Dillashaw for the gold.
The top ten ranked fighter knows that in order to move up in the weight class, finishes are needed.
“I need one…I need one, I need one for me, but I also need one because a lot of fans are out there talking about how I’m not a finisher. That’s just now how I want to be known, I’m a wrestler and I went out there and wrestled Terrion Ware. Now I’s the split decision or decision-nator…actually someone called me (that), I need a finish. I have to look for that finish, I have to be that guy. It can’t be another close fight, I absolutely got to run through him. I’ve been training like that, I feel like that sometimes in training…you just get used to barely winning rounds and I think that’s something I was getting accustomed to. Just doing enough to win…just doing enough to win, I want to punch that ticket and I want to go to that next level. I want there to be no doubt after September 8 and after I get my hand raised, you know that I’m the next guy…the dark horse in that division. I’m gonna be the guys that’s eventually gonna be the champ,” says Stamann.
UFC 228 takes place on Saturday, September 8 from the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas with Tyron Woodley and Darren Till headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
