Bryan Battle was preparing to fight by the end of the year.
After Battle knocked out Takashi Sato in 44 seconds in June, he wanted a quick turnaround. Yet, that did not come to fruition so when Michael Morales was forced out of his fight against Rinat Fakhretdinov, Battle immediately took the scrap on short notice.
“I thought I was going to fight in December,” Battle said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “I think that is part of the reason why I was able to accept the fight, because up until recently I thought it would be January. Even though I didn’t have anything booked, I was still training in a fight camp in case something came up. I feel great, I’m in fantastic shape, I like the matchup, all the stars align, my weights in a good place and I’m going to go out there and make a statement on short notice and differentiate myself from the pack a little bit.”
Although Battle told his manager to get him this fight, he admits he didn’t know much about Fakhretdinov. However, after studying him, Battle got more confident as he believes the only path to victory for Fakhretdinov is to wrestle him.
“I wasn’t familiar with him at all. I just wanted to fight and then I started looking him up afterward. Looking at all his fights, watching his UFC fight,” Battle said. “He has a lot of fights on YouTube, he has a lot of footage to watch. He’s a really tough guy, and the style he fights is a very tough style to deal with. But, I feel like he has only one avenue to victory and that is putting pressure and wrestling me and holding me down. Having one avenue to victory against someone like me that’s not the best way to go. You have to have multiple threats.”
Not only does Bryan Battle think Rinat Fakhretdinov has one path to victory, but he believes his striking defense has a lot of holes. He also wonders about Fakhretdinov’s cardio, so with that, Battle has confidence he will get his hand raised on Saturday at UFC Vegas 66.
“There are a lot of different ways I can see it playing out, there are some openings he leaves that no one has been able to cash in on to this point,” Battle said. “Just like Takashi, I’m going to see if I can exploit one of those openings early on but if it doesn’t we have a game plan to deal with him the entire time. Not give him a clean shot, we have some special stuff cooked up for him. Don’t get tired, bro. If he ends up on his back foot it will be a really bad night for him.”
If Battle does beat Fakhretdinov he isn’t sure where that puts him in the division. But, he is confident it will set him up for a big 2023.
“It’s a win getting against a guy on an 18-fight win streak who hasn’t lost in nearly 10 years. It gives me more notoriety and more valuable of an asset,” Battle said. “On paper, it doesn’t push me that far, but it’s about making a statement.”
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