Darren Stewart feels Deron Winn looked past him — not to mention disrespecting him by missing weight — but hopes he learns from their UFC Boston fight.
Boston, MA — Darren Stewart became the first man to beat Deron Winn in MMA at UFC Boston. The split decision victory improved Stewart’s own record to 11–4 (1NC), and put him on a two-fight win streak. After the fight, Stewart was still pretty fired up. But while Winn missed weight for their middleweight scrap, that wasn’t the only point of contention.
Winn had boasted that he’d stand and trade with Stewart. He didn’t. Worse, he got moms involved in his talk before the fight.
“Don’t call me out, get moms involved, miss weight, and think you’ll come and beat me. Don’t do it,” Stewart told reporters including Cageside Press following UFC Boston.
Asked about his reaction to Winn missing weight, Stewart said that “I was recovering, so at the time, it was a bit emotional. But I’m dying on the floor, you know. I’m sacrificing. I’m making big sacrifices. I’m going through hell to make the weight to fight you. To come over to your country.”
“They keep sending me over to America. I love America, don’t get me wrong. But they keep sending me here, the least you can do is make weight,” he continued.
That said, “once I had a bit of food in my system, I didn’t care,” Stewart added. The extra money, handed over from Winn’s purse as a result of him missing weight, didn’t hurt either.
As to whether Winn should move up a division, Stewart countered the idea by saying “stop being lazy. You’ve got to make weight. I’m not going to bore you guys, and play a violin, but I go through sacrifices, and I make the weight. I’ve never missed weight before in my life. There’s no point in going up. I’m not the best yet, but you want to go up to light heavy, you’re going to get tread on.”
Besides the weight issue, Stewart also feels that Winn looked past him. “He did overlook me,” said Stewart. “He said on Twitter I think it was, that ‘I’m going to trade with you in the first round.’ To show me that he can strike, and then he’ll put me in deep waters. He was in deep water tonight.”
Stewart admitted that “I was in a bit of deep water tonight, but I’ve been there.” Deep waters in a fight, and deep waters in training, are two different things, he added. “I’m hoping that he learns from tonight. I’ve been in deep waters, and I’ve learned from it. I hope he does as well.”
Watch the full UFC Boston post-fight press scrum with Darren Stewart above!
