Dong Hyun Kim and Tarec Saffiedine filled in a main card slot for UFC 207 when Cain Velasquez was forced to pull out of his heavyweight bout with Fabricio Werdum. It was a big opportunity for both men to shine on the final Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event of 2016.
The fight wasn’t exactly thrilling and Kim admitted it when speaking to the media backstage:
“I wanted to have a more exciting fight. I wanted to go for a ‘Fight of the Night’ performance, but he had a great clinch game.”
“The Stun Gun” fought “Sponge” for three grueling rounds. When the score totals were read, Kim was awarded the split decision victory. Many media members felt Saffiedine had done enough to edge it out. Kim believes his pressure is what got him the nod.
“I feel that he won the first round [and] I won the second round. During the third round, I had better Octagon pressure and I took him down a couple of times. I think pressure and takedowns sealed the fight.”
Kim was asked about the gameplan going into his final bout of 2016. The South Korean fighter said the focus of his training was working on applying pressure on the feet and being wary of tie-ups.
“We knew Tarec has great takedown defense, so we prepared every little detail in the stand-up. We also prepared takedowns in a clinch situation, but he had a really good clinch game too so it was really hard to take him down.”
Going into the bout, Kim said he wasn’t impressed by Saffiedine’s performances inside the Octagon. “The Stun Gun” said there was one area “Sponge” was weaker than he anticipated, but one where he was stronger as well.
“His stand-up wasn’t as good as I thought, but his clinch game was a lot better than I thought.”
