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On the heels of two impressive wins over Top 10 opponents, it would be understandable if Calvin Kattar did all he could to maneuver closer to a title opportunity by way of strategic matchmaking. However, that’s just not the way the No. 6 ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight does things. With Yair Rodriguez, Chan Sung Jung, Brian Ortega, Zabit Magomedsharipov and Max Holloway standing in-between him and a shot at gold, the New England native really doesn’t care who he faces next. In the end, he expects to face them all eventually, and isn’t opposed to cleaning out the division first en route to getting belt around his waist.
“I want all five of them. There’s no order. I just fought Dan Ige. I don’t care if they’re behind me [in the rankings]. I’ll take the fights none of these guys wants to take,” Kattar told Sherdog. “No one wanted to fight Dan Ige on a six-fight winning streak. No one wanted to fight Zabit or go to Russia. No one wanted to fight Jeremy Stephens. I’m not dodging around [looking] for easy fights. I’m a fighter man. Whomever they put me in there with next; ideally, it would be the champ. And if it’s not the champ, I want whoever gets me the champ next. It’s really just cut and dry like that. Yea, Max [Holloway] I’m sure would be a fun one stylistically. I’m sure we’d have a pretty good standup fight for the fans. I see myself competing with all these guys in no order. I’d be cool even fighting them all before I got the belt. This way, when the belt is around my waste they’re not going to have anybody for me when I’ve taken on all the contenders.”
As guest co-host on this week’s Back Talk, “The Boston Finisher” covered a host of topics, including his big win at UFC on ESPN 13 and the influence of seeing his mother raise three children as a single parent.
