Nik Lentz wasn’t real sure what he was getting into this past Saturday night at UFC 203 when he welcomed Michael McBride to the Octagon.
McBride, who was 8-1 entering the contest, stepped in on short notice as a replacement for Mairbek Taisumov. Lentz went on to pick up a second round TKO, but was very appreciative of McBride afterwards.
“I congratulate him because there was a whole 155-pound division that could take this fight and nobody took it,” Lentz said (thanks to MMAjunkie for the quotes). “They had to go get a newcomer to take it and they even got turned down a few times in that. No, there’s not many people short notice who want to fight Nik Lentz. I don’t blame them, but at the same time, good for the kid for stepping up. Of course, if he came in a little overweight, who cares? He took the fight. I’ll take him out to dinner later.”
Lentz improved his record to 27-7-2 overall and 11-4-1 with the UFC.
While the win over McBride (8-2) likely did little to enhance his rankings, Lentz knows that the fact that several other “big names” turned down the fight might mean he is making an impact.
“I’m not a little snitch like that,” Lentz said. “You guys will have to figure that out on your own. Plenty of big names, I’ll tell you that.”
