“Vegas beats the snow back home,” featherweight Calvin Kattar said this week, in advance of his return at UFC Vegas 102 on Saturday.
Kattar (23-8), part of the New England Mafia, admitted that things haven’t been going the way he’d hoped of late. He’s lost three straight fights, but as he pointed out, there’s been some unfortunate circumstances along the way.
“Don’t want to beat a dead horse, but I thought I won that first fight of the three, with [Josh] Emmett, and the way things worked out with Allen with the knee, just unfortunate. I feel like that fight didn’t even happen,” Kattar stated during this week’s UFC Vegas 102 media day. “Lost a solid fight to a former champ [Aljamain Sterling], and all of a sudden here we are 0-3. Not the way you want to write it up, but it’s dangerous kind of focusing too much behind you and too far ahead of you.”
“Right now we’ve got Youssel Zalal on Saturday, tough opponent, four fight win streak. It’s not easy to do in the UFC. Definitely deserving of a top 10, top 15 challenge. I’m ready to go out and give him a fight come Saturday night.”
Youssef Zalal is unranked at the moment, while Calvin Kattar sits at #10 in the UFC’s 145lb division. While some established fighters don’t like fighting down the rankings, let alone against an unranked opponent, “I don’t give a f*ck about that,” Kattar said bluntly. As to why, it’s because “everybody’s tough. I just don’t care either way.”
“A fight’s a fight. I don’t care who it is, who it’s against,” continued Kattar. “Give me some time for it, I’ll be happy for that. It doesn’t always happen, but for this one we got time. I’m not getting any younger, and it’s about testing myself and proving to myself that I belong at the top of the division. These guys are just an opportunity for me to do that. I don’t care who it is, kind of where they stack up. I let the manager deal with that all sh*t. I just focus on beating the guy in front of me every time.”
Kattar would later reiterate the idea that he’s looking to prove he belongs at the top of the weight class. “I feel like the top 15, top 10, top 5, it just gets different. Different levels. I plan to prove not only to him [Zalal] and everybody but to myself that I still belong in the top of the division.”
Watch the full UFC 312 media day appearance by Youssef Zalal above.
