Back at UFC Philadelphia, Sodiq Yusuff extended his winning streak to four and improved to 2-0 in the UFC.
Following the fight, Yusuff called out Kron Gracie, who is coming off of a submission win over Alex Caceres and is from the legendary jiu-jitsu family.
Yusuff wants this fight and hopes it comes next.
“I just beat probably the best Muay Thai guy in my weight class so I want to fight another top guy from a different art,” Yusuff said to BJPENN.com. “Kron is probably the best grappler we have and I can knock him off now when we are both upcoming fighters, and both have the same hype it will be a good matchup. That common striker vs grappler matchup.”
Yusuff is confident he could keep the fight standing where he knows he would have a big advantage over Gracie. Given the fight highlights two of the more highly-touted prospects in the featherweight division, Yusuff knows the ideal card for this fight.
“Honestly, if I could get on International Fight Week that would be amazing,” he said. “I heard this year they are only doing one card so everybody is shooting for it so it may be a long shot. But, hopefully, I can get on it.”
Although he wants the Gracie fight next in Las Vegas, Yusuff is already looking beyond that fight to even bigger plans. He wants to help bring the UFC to the African continent one day.
“Man, no questions asked,” he explained. “If they somehow get it done it would be incredible. If they could do that any way in Africa would be surreal.”
A UFC card in Africa is something welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, interim middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou and Yusuff among others all want. With the rise of African fighters in the UFC, Yusuff believes the time is now.
“It is amazing. I came close to crying when I was watching Kamaru Usman win that title,” Yusuff said. “It brings hope to a lot of people. You watch that and become inspired. There is nothing better. It helped me so much going into my fight. Watching Usman win the belt was like an extra motivation. To see someone come from where you came from to make it to the top is special.”
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 4/16/2019.