UFC Vegas 58’s Cortney Casey Just Wants to Throw Hands

Cortney Casey UFC
Cortney Casey Credit: Mike Straus/Cageside Press

The UFC career of Cortney Casey is a hard one to get a complete picture of just by looking at the record. Three times Casey has been on the wrong side of split decisions (and perhaps one or more dubious unanimous decisions as well). The reason behind the majority of them has been the wrestling of her opponents and limited offense from that point.

While the judging has been better at awarding fighters on the bottom who are looking to attack and do damage, it’s still been frustrating for the UFC flyweight.

“It’s frustrating. It’s hard to do something with someone isn’t doing anything,” Casey expressed. “When they’re just laying on and holding on for dear life and winning the position (I guess you could say) and top control, but not really doing damage, it’s really frustrating as a fighter.”

Heading into her fight this weekend with Antonina Shevchenko, Casey has been looking to avoid some of that frustration. While wrestling defense is always important in a fight, Casey knows that it, in fact, all starts with her striking.

“For me, we’ve just been adding a lot of footwork in there to make sure we’re not standing right in front of someone,” she explained. “I like to stand and bang, so that’s kind of my problem. If I stand in front of you, it’s easier to take me down.”

Knowing the profile of the older Shevchenko sister, she’s less concerned about that aspect for this fight. However, she recognizes that she brings a whole different set of puzzles for her to work out.

“We liked the matchup… She has a good clinch game and things like that. We know she likes to wear he opponents out that way,” Casey said. “But I feel like we came up with a good game plan for that as well.”

Casey will look to show off her new footwork and get a chance to bang at UFC Vegas 58. That fight will take place on the ESPN 2 and ESPN+ this Saturday.

You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 32:45.