LAS VEGAS – Regardless of the opponent, Sodiq Yusuff wanted to compete at all costs.
Yusuff (12-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) was originally scheduled to face Giga Chikadze at UFC Fight Night 210, but after Chikadze was forced out due to injury, he ended up drawing Don Shainis (12-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC) two weeks later in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 211 card.
A rather anticlimactic change for Yusuff, who went from a top 10 ranked featherweight to a UFC newcomer. But the 29-year-old, who hasn’t competed since defeating Alex Caceres in March, wanted all that hard work to amount to something.
“I gotta go get my check,” Yusuff told reporters, including MMA Junkie, at the UFC Fight Night 211 media day on Wednesday. “To be honest, the pay was a big motivator, but outside of that too, I took the fight with Giga maybe four months in advance. It was a long time when I signed the fight and we put in a lot of work. I can’t let all that go to waste. I gotta get something at the end of the day.”
He continued, “There is no letdown. This is a very crazy game. I try not to underestimate anybody, so I treat this guy the same way I treat Giga, the same way I would treat anybody in there. Every single one of my fights, I try to look at it like this is for the belt, so it’s definitely not a letdown. Once we get the fight over and done with, then we can look into the future, but for now, this guy is the main priority.”
Shainis may be making his octagon debut, but that doesn’t change much for Yusuff, who says he always extensively studies film on his opponents.
“He’s a grinder,” Yusuff said. “He throws a lot of looping shots and he tries to get in there in your face and tries to grind you out. Like I said, everybody I fight, I’m a big believer in watching film. I’ll never be a guy that comes in there and be like let’s just wing it. Ever since I was an amateur, I’ve always been film studier.”
UFC Fight Night 211 takes place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The card streams on ESPN+.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 211.
