UFC Vegas 56: Benoit Saint-Denis Opens Up On UFC Debut, Hopes For Spot On UFC London

Las Vegas, NV — Benoit Saint-Denis is hoping for a quick turnaround, and a date in London after a strong performance on Saturday night.

Saint-Denis (9-1, 1NC) picked up his first UFC win at UFC Vegas 56, submitting Niklas Stolze in the second round.

The last time the French fighter was in action, he was on the other side of an absolute one-sided beat down at the hands of Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos at UFC 267. There was a lot of criticism about the referee letting it go on too long, as well as his corner not throwing in the towel.

During his UFC Vegas 56 post-fight interview, he opened up about it.

“You know, I always try to win. So, always the referee asked me to do stuff, and I did stuff. I’m a fighter, and I’m not gonna break. If he’s not knocking me out cold or if he’s not making sleep or breaking my arm, he’s not gonna get me because it’s my job,” Saint-Denis told Cageside Press. “In training, you have to be a scholar. It has to be a good atmosphere in the training room. You have to get submitted to submit guys, taking hits, hitting guys, it’s fun.”

“But fighting, it’s fighting, man. We are fighters, and we don’t fight every day. It’s our job. And our job is to do everything we can to give the people a good show. To be respected and to have respect for ourselves. [During my UFC debut], I’m always gonna put my art in a fight, and I don’t want the fight to be stopped. I know I have the ability to knock out or submit anybody. Like at the end of the second round- I hit him with a good hook, and the fight was getting a bit more closer again. Yes, I did get f*cked up for two minutes. But then it went back to normal. It’s fighting, man.”

Saint-Benoit’s UFC debut showed how tough he is, and he showed it again at UFC Vegas 56 when he ate a knee in the first round.

The UFC is going to Paris, France, in September, and while that would make complete sense for Saint-Benoit to return then, he is hoping to get a spot on next month’s UFC London card. That’s because he is getting married around the time of the UFC Paris card.

“Two places I want to go are London and Paris. But because I’m getting married very near to the date of Paris, I would love to go to London and to fight in London because I think the best atmosphere in all of Europe is London,” Saint-Benoit said. “London is the best, is the place to be. You know, we have seen that with the last London card, it was just f*cking crazy…. Because of my marriage, I will love to do the London card. If it has to be Paris, it will be Paris. I will see how I can manage the two stuff together, but I will love London.”

Watch the rest of Benoit Saint-Denis’ UFC Vegas 56 post-fight press scrum above. More coverage can be found below.