Rising UFC contender Najavo Stirling eyes fight vs. fellow kickboxer
· Yahoo Sports
LAS VEGAS – Navajo Stirling has quite a long fight wishlist, but there's one name specifically that for him stands out from the rest.
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Stirling (10-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) is pretty clear about the level of opposition he'd like to face next following his TKO win over Ion Cutelaba (20-12-1 MMA, 9-11-1 UFC) in the co-main event of Saturday's UFC Fight Night 279 at the Meta APEX. Stirling would like to face a veteran like Zhang Mingyang, Alonso Menifield, Modestas Bukauskas or Dustin Jacoby. Among those names, there's one that really draws his attention.
"I think out of those four, I feel like Jacoby would be a cool matchup," Stirling said at the UFC Fight Night 279 post-fight press conference. "He was a Glory kickboxer. He was very tidy on the feet – a complete different puzzle to solve compared to Ion, who was just very aggressive, just looking to get in your face. Jacoby is just a little bit more smarter on his work, so I like the style matchup and just the technicality of it all. I feel he would be an interesting fight."
Stirling is settling in as a name to watch. Fighting out of City Kickboxing in New Zealand, Stirling is now 10-0 as a professional fighter with five of those wins being in the UFC. So far, he's been happy with his progression in the sport, and found Cutelaba to be the test he needed at this stage of his young career.
"I knew this would be a good test, and it put me in some spots that I'd never been in before," Stirling said. "I've never actually been put on the mat before, so it was the first time defending submissions and having to scramble up from my feet, from the bottom. So yeah, it was nice to bank all of that."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Rising UFC contender Najavo Stirling eyes fight vs. fellow kickboxer