UFC Vegas 57: Mario Bautista Expected Three-Round War With Brian Kelleher

Las Vegas, NV — It was a short night at the office on Saturday for Mario Bautista, but he thought it would be a long one.

Bautista (10-2) picked up one of his biggest wins at UFC Vegas 57, and he made it look very easy. It took the 28-year-old less than three minutes to submit UFC veteran Brian Kelleher. It was a very short night for Bautista, something he did not expect.

“I anticipated like kind of a, I don’t mean this like, disrespectfully, but like a harder fight. But it just proved that I trained really hard for this and I deserve it. And, you know, I’m a top prospect in this division,” Bautista told the media, including Cageside Press, during his UFC Vegas 57 post-fight interview. “I pictured a three-round war, to be honest.”

And while he pictured a three-round war with Kelleher, Bautista knew he didn’t want to be in the cage with “Boom” for three rounds because he knew how dangerous he is.

“You don’t want to be in there with Brian, all three rounds, because he has power all the way through, so you don’t want to be messing around there. So, you know, I set my pace right away. And he just couldn’t keep up with me,” Bautista said.

As for who is next, Bautista wants one of the bantamweights that fought on the card beside him. If he had his choice, he would pick Umar Nurmagomedov because of his name, but Sergey Morozov, who also won, also makes sense to him.

Bautista is now riding a two-fight win streak since suffering a knockout loss to Trevin Jones.

Watch the rest of Mario Bautista’s UFC Vegas 57 post-fight interview above. More coverage from the event can be found below.