Navajo
Stirling believes Ion
Cutelaba didn’t give up on himself in their clash, offering a
different perspective of the finishing sequence.
Stirling is coming off a second-round stoppage win over “The Hulk,”
wherein the undefeated Kiwi reversed a takedown and unleashed a
flurry of punches on a seated Cutelaba to secure the finish.
However, Stirling notes that the finish was triggered by a knee to
his opponent’s liver that he landed right before getting taken
down.
Advertisement
Navajo Stirling explains the liver shot and finishing sequence
against Ion Cutelaba before UFC Belgrade
Having hurt several of his opponents with body shots, Stirling knew
he had damaged Cutelaba with the knee to the body. He revealed that
Cutelaba let out a big gasp of air moments after landing the
takedown, subsequently lost his hold on the takedown and Stirling
went for the finish.
While it might’ve looked like Cutelaba just gave up after the
takedown reversal to the untrained eye, Stirling guarantees that
anyone’s body will stop responding if they eat a flush knee from
him.
“I sunk this left knee to the body right before the last takedown
and hit him flush in the liver,” Stirling said in a recent
interview. “And he finished the takedown; he locked in a squeeze.
And I’ve got a lot of body shot finishes, so I know the delayed
reaction that you get. Basically, after two seconds within the
takedown, he let out a really loud winded noise. His body went limp
on the takedown and I knew straight away it was the knee. So, I got
up and rushed the finish. I knew I didn’t need to control him
anymore; I could just push him, get him out of there, because he
was done… And you know, the guy didn’t give up. If I sink a left
knee to your liver, you’re not gonna be able to move.”
Stirling (10-0) is set to make a turnaround of 40 days to face
former
Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight titleholder
Jan
Blachowicz (29-11) at
UFC Belgrade on Aug. 1 in Serbia. Stirling took the fight on
less than three weeks’ notice after Blachowicz’s original opponent,
Bogdan
Guskov, was rebooked for
UFC Abu Dhabi instead.