Bantamweight (and temporary featherweight) Cody Stamann doesn’t see his string of opponent changes ahead of UFC Vegas 18 as an issue.
Although he went from being booked against Merab Dvalishvili, to Andre Ewell, and now, finally, to Askar Askar, “I don’t really look at it as much of an obstacle,” he told Cageside Press during a virtual media day ahead of the event. “Preparing for Merab, I felt like I had trained hard enough to fight anyone, you know what I mean? Merab’s a nasty dude. And you’ve got to be in really good shape to fight that guy.”
“It doesn’t matter who it is, just send me the contract and we’ll get it done,” Stamann added. “I’ll fight anybody. Anybody that will say yes. I don’t care what weight it’s at. We’re going to do it. Luckily for me, it’s at 145lbs, so I don’t have to cut much weight.”
Stamann has now had three straight fights at featherweight, with a win over Brian Kelleher and a loss to Jimmie Rivera in 2020. While he has found some success, “I definitely got to go back to bantamweight,” he admitted.
“I was really disciplined this time around. Like I said, rigorous training camp and preparation from Merab. My weight got really low, lowest it’s been. So I was looking really good for 135 and I didn’t think it was going to be much of a struggle to make 35,” Stamann explained. “I’m pretty small.”
With that in mind, Stamann is hopeful that a quick finish of newcomer Askar leads to a quick turnaround. “I would really like to get this kid out of there in a big hurry and fight again soon, because I put in a lot of time before this fight,” he noted. “I was supposed to fight in December. You’re talking about two months before that, and now two months after, so it’s like four months. And I feel like I have at least a couple fights in me. And I can definitely make 35 here in a few weeks.”
Cody Stamann meets Askar Askar at UFC Vegas 18 (UFC Fight Night 184) on Saturday, February 6 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. The card airs live on ESPN+ (TSN in Canada).
