Stann: Sonnen ‘very difficult to overcome’
Q: Chael Sonnen will be the highest-ranked opponent you’ve fought so far. What does it say about your development as…
Q: Chael Sonnen will be the highest-ranked opponent you’ve fought so far. What does it say about your development as a fighter?
Stann: I definitely take it as a compliment. It’s a great challenge.
I think they were having a hard time finding anybody to fight Chael, to be quite honest with you. I think he had a lot of people he wanted to fight; nobody would fight him.
Regardless of what people want to say about him, people can’t deny the guy’s record, what he’s been able to do. So when they called me and told me that’s who I was fighting next, I looked at it as a huge opportunity.
It’s not very often you get to fight somebody who’s that much higher than you in the rankings. You have to take those opportunities, take advantage of them. You have to go out there and win.
I think UFC knows I’m a guy who’s going to stay in the upper echelon of this weight class for years to come. I’m very happy with the match-up.
This is a potential No. 1 contender’s fight. Since a title shot might be at stake, I’ll ask: Why do you think no one in UFC has been able to crack Anderson Silva?
I think they get too intimidated. They get caught up in the moment of, “Oh, my goodness, I’m fighting Anderson Silva, the greatest fighter of all time.” They don’t allow their best version of themselves to come out there and just go for it. They go in there and they try to fight not to lose, rather than fight to win. Anderson does a great job of crushing someone’s confidence with the quickness in there.
I’m not looking at that fight right now. I’d be crazy to look past Chael Sonnen and all the things that he presents. He’s an unbelievable fighter who’s been doing this since I was in high school. All of my focus right now is on him, what he’s going to do, and more importantly, what I need to do to him to win this fight.