If you were familiar with Steven Asplund’s game prior to him offering to suck Dana White’s toes, then you know his game is all about pace. Once nearly 500lbs, the cardio that brought him down into the heavyweight division has been his signature weapon on the regional scene. That pace and stamina earned him the short notice opportunity on this year’s Contender Series, and it was originally his plan to use it in the fight.
“That was the game plan – pick this motherfucker apart and tag them up. Make them bleed, get them frustrated and then find the finish in the second round,” he said. “But I just had this feeling in my heart and I was like if I go in there and just push the pace, hit him quick and hard to let them know, like, ‘Hey, big man, you haven’t been hit like this before yet’, and just show them what’s up.”
As those thoughts creeped into the back of his head, he began to think about vocalizing them. Instead he turned to his coach and looked for a reminder of what he was supposed to do. However, Invicta- and PFL-veteran Kaitlin “The Striking Viking” Young wasn’t going to give the answer that he expected, and instead was going to give the one he needed.
“I mean, so we changed the game plan right before we went out there,” Asplund explained. “I asked Kaitlin [Young] right before we walked out, like literally right before I said, how do we fight one last time? Like, what do you want out of me? And she said, ‘honestly, you win however you want tonight.'”
To be sure, he asked her to clarify one more time if he was welcome to throw his gameplan to the wind.
“I said, ‘swear to God?’ She said, ‘I swear to God,” he recalled the exchange. “I was like, all right, well, I’m gonna make it a firefight then… She slapped my butt, told me to go out there and do what we do, and we fucking did it.”
After knocking out Anthony Guarascio in just 16 seconds, and then cutting one of the most famous promos in Dana White’s Contender Series history, Asplund secured the contract. Now he looks to make a similar statement in his UFC debut. He fights AJ Frye as part of the ESPN+ prelims of UFC Vegas 112. That fight card starts this Saturday at 7pm EST.
