On Wednesday, Calvin Kattar shared his thoughts on how his upcoming UFC Fight Night bout with Josh Emmett might play out.
“Either one of us gets it done early and make it look easy, or it’s gonna be a five-round banger,” he said.
With two of the best strikers in the featherweight division facing off Saturday in Austin, Texas, the prospect of a “banger” is always in play. Add to that the stakes of the winner being springboarded into contender status for Alexander Volkanovski’s belt, and both fighters won’t be holding back.
Kattar has won three of his past four matches and comes in on a two-match Fight of the Night streak with a win over Giga Chikadze and a loss to former featherweight champion Max Holloway.
Emmett comes into Austin riding a four-fight winning streak, with his most recent victory coming against Dan Ige at UFC 269. Emmett is reminding the MMA world that he is one of the best at 145 pounds when healthy, as he’s fully recovered from tearing ligaments in his left knee.
Follow along as Brett Okamoto recaps the action from Austin, or watch the fights on ESPN or ESPN+.
Related: Devastating injuries haven’t taken the fight out of Josh Emmett
Contents
Fight in progress
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Welterweight: Tim Means (32-12-1 1 NC, 14-9 UFC 1 NC, +230) vs. Kevin Holland (22-7 1 NC, 10-4 1 NC UFC, -280)
UFC Fight Night results
Middleweight: Joaquin Buckley (15-4, 5-2 UFC) def. Albert Duraev (15-4, 2-1 UFC) by technical knockout (Watch on ESPN+)
A bout between two former teammates produced a lopsided result, as Buckley thoroughly dominated Duraev on the feet — hurting him multiple times enroute to a doctor’s stoppage after the second round.
Duraev, of Russia, went into the bout with a lot of confidence in his ability to out-wrestle Buckley, but that is not what played out in the cage. Buckley did a tremendous job keeping the fight standing, where he staggered Duraev with a left kick to the head and closed his right eye with straight left hands. Duraev finished the second round hunched over on his knees…
Source : espn
