Cody Stamann is set to return to the Octagon at UFC Washington D.C. when he takes on Song Yadong.
Yet, he is surprised Yadong is his opponent as he was scheduled to battle Rob Font in the summer at UFC Greenville but he had to pull out due to an injury. So, he is shocked that bout never got re-booked especially because both are on this card.
Now, against Yadong, he says this is to keep him busy and doesn’t care that Yadong and Team Alpha Male were calling him out.
“Yeah, I didn’t even know they were saying anything until after I signed the fight. This was not an ego thing or a grudge match with Song. But, I honestly think, after I beat [Alejandro] Perez and the way I fought them, and the way Song went out there and knocked him out his team were like, ‘we want Cody Stamann.’ They were begging for me, saying, ‘we had a better performance against Perez than he did, we want this fight,'” Stamann said to MMANews. “One thing they completely forgot is I was the one who completely derailed the kid. I’m the one that took Alejandro Perez off a huge five-year win streak on three weeks’ notice. They got to watch how I fought him and got to fight him on a full training camp so it’s totally different. There are a lot of variables there and MMA math doesn’t add up.”
For Cody Stamann, he says he just wanted to fight again and doesn’t care Yadong is ranked below him. Instead, he says the prospect is a top-10 opponent.
But, something Stamann disagrees with is the hype Song Yadong is getting. He doesn’t believe he deserves it and is ready to derail the hype just like he did to Tom Duquesnoy.
“As far as his hype and his knockout is BS, I couldn’t give a f**k about it. I fought Tom Duquesnoy and he was the most overhyped motherf****r I’ve ever fought,” he said. “He’s also probably the easiest fight I have fought in the UFC, honestly. That was a guy I was nervous for because of how much everyone else was hyping him up. But like man everyone is hyping him up, he must be legit, which he wasn’t.”
Something else that bothers Cody Stamann is Urijah Faber saying Song Yadong is going to be a UFC champion. He believes the UFC Hall of Famer says that about everyone so he thinks that just adds to the fake hype.
“You got another guy who is super hyped up and Urijah Faber is saying is the next champ. I think Urijah Faber says that about everyone who walks into this gym. So it doesn’t hold that much weight in my eyes,” he said. “For me, I know I’m the best in the world and on any night I can beat anyone on the planet. I just got to show up and do it. I look at who I am as an athlete, I have always been more athletic, faster, bigger, stronger than everyone my size and now everything is coming together.”
In the end, Stamann is more than confident he will get his hand raised and plans on outwrestling Yadong. He doesn’t think the surging contender has good wrestling defense and plans on exploiting it.
“There are a lot of variables. I don’t know how much he is going to switch his gameplan up against me. I’m going to take him down, he is going to get taken down,” Stamann explained. “I am going to do it at will because I don’t think his wrestling is what he thinks it is or what anyone else thinks it is… I can see him coming out hot but I’m going to bring it to him. I’m going to show him what I’m about and hopefully, after that it puts people on notice.”
Should he gets past this fight, Stamann wants to rematch Aljamain Sterling next.
“It better happen again,” he concluded.
