Abu Dhabi – UFC middleweight Armen Petrosyan says he felt it was important to be on UFC 308 against Shara Magomedov on Saturday night.
“There’s lot of people in Abu Dhabi that can come here from Russia. There’s a lot of Russian fans here. People that give us support, people that really greet us here really well,” Petrosyan told reporters through a translator on Wednesday.
“Folks from our country can actually come here and support us freely. This specific card had a lot of attention so it’s very important to be somewhere seen.”
Petrosyan (8-3) will see Magomedov across the octagon on Saturday night. The undefeated prospect gets a lot of attention for his fight style and having one eye.
“Shara is very popular. He’s got a lot of hype behind him, and I think really for both of us this is a great thing that there’s going to be so many people watching this specific fight,” he said.
“We know each other. At one point we even trained together way back when. We fought together on the same tournament, but it’s not like we fought together. We didn’t fight each other. We know each other, I wouldn’t say that we’re best of friends, but we’re really good acquaintances.”
Petrosyan is expecting a fire fight with Magomedov in Abu Dhabi. With both men trying to make strides in the middleweight division it’s bound to set up a banger of a bout at UFC 308.
“We know all of his weak parts. We know all of his good sides. You’ll see it,” he said.
“For every opponent we make sure to study him really well. It’s going to be very fiery. Very exciting.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Armen Petrosyan above. He takes on Shara Magomedov at UFC 308 on Saturday.
