John Castaneda has been wrestling for a long time. He’s seemingly seen it all and faced all sorts of wrestlers on the mats and in the cage. When he steps in the cage this Saturday at UFC 295, he’ll face a guy who has leaned heavily on his wrestling in his UFC career in Kyung Ho Kang. Despite what the stats say on the subject, Castaneda simply isn’t impressed. He feels like those statistics need a little context to them.
“Kang has used his wrestling on non-wrestlers. If you watch a lot of his fights and who he’s really taken down and dominated on the ground,” he said. “It’s against guys with zero wrestling credentials.”
It’s not just that Kang has looked good against bad wrestlers. Castaneda also points out he’s had trouble with some guys that he would not consider top level.
“If you take a look at one of his most recent losses against Rani Yahya. Rani Yahya is a very, very, very good grappler, but I would be lying through my teeth if I said he had good wrestling,” he pointed out. “Rani Yahya was able to take down Kang three or four times in that fight.”
Given what he’s seen of Kang so far in his career, Castaneda offered an assessment of those skills as a whole.
“In my opinion, Kang has used his size and has used his wrestling to take down people, but he hasn’t taken down any good wrestlers or dominated any decent wrestlers,” he said. “I think he is a below average wrestler.”
With such an advantage in the wrestling, one might expect ‘The Sexi Mexi’ to take him down early and often. While there might be some of that, he’s got a different prediction for how this one ends.
“Look for a patient John Castaneda,” he said. “I’m going to hurt him on the feet and I could knock him down, knock him out, or TKO him. It’s going to be a finish within two [rounds].”
Castaneda’s fight with Kyung Ho Kang can be seen on ESPN+ as part of the early prelim portion of UFC 295. Those fights begin at 6pm EST this Saturday.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 2:12.
