Calvin Kattar gets excited about any fight, but his opponent rarely matters.
His return at UFC 300 may mean more than usual, but not because he welcomes former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling to 145 pounds. His elation comes from fighting for the first time since a torn ACL ended his fight with Arnold Allen in October 2022.
“I've never thought too much about what my expectations are,” Kattar said. MMA hour. “I can’t control every bull***, but I try to be as prepared as possible. I know that no matter who I face, the next fight is going to be a big one. I feel like the last two games were a little tough for me, I had an injury in the last game, but I felt like I won the game before that.Including the injury, at least two wins in a row. I think you should. It's just frustrating.
“Obviously, that didn't work out. You can't put so much energy into something you can't control. All I can do is go out there and get a strong rating in the next game and get a 'W' here.” Just focus on what you’re doing.”
The chance to fight on the historic UFC 300 card isn't lost on Catal either. That opportunity was likely made possible by Sterling's agreement to be his first featherweight opponent. He is grateful for that. But in reality, he just wanted to wash away the bad taste from his last outing.
“To be honest, there wasn't much,” Qatar said of his reaction to Sterling as an opponent. “Slightly [surprised] The fact that he's a former champion, that's great, but it takes a tough opponent to have a chance at a big moment like this. I would like to thank him for making this fight possible with such a historic card.
“I'm blessed [and] It's an honor, but it would be the same even if I was fighting someone. No matter who the opponent is, the next fight is always the biggest fight. I didn't really think about who I was fighting. ”
Sterling will face Qatar, who was knocked out by Sean O'Malley at UFC 292 to win the UFC bantamweight title and suffer his first loss in nearly six years. This was a somewhat shocking result considering O'Malley's run in the division, along with his relative inexperience facing the division's top fighters.
“I thought Sean looked really good,” Catal said of the match. “I think he did a lot of little things detail-wise really well. I was definitely a little surprised, but I knew there was a chance, a high chance, of it happening. Sean created the distance and You can make shots, you get chances, and Arjo was kind of going in there.
“I thought Arjo could have made it a little more like a dogfight. But hey, that's how it worked out.”
Catal is primarily focused on himself rather than Sterling as he works his way back from a serious knee injury that kept him sidelined for the entirety of 2023. That said, his heavy hands combined with a potential size and power advantage could bring O'Malley the same kind of welcome to the new division that bounced Sterling out of the old division. he knows.
“We have to prepare the best version,” Qatar said of Sterling. “A lot of people will say, 'Oh, after a year and a half, I bet the ring will rust.' Did I overstock the Arjo? Who's going to say ***? People often says badly. It's the game night that matters, and it can go one of two ways.
“We're going to do everything we can to make it look like it did last August.” [for Sterling]. We're ready for a hell of a fight and we're hoping for a quick finish, but we're ready for whatever happens on Saturday.”
There will be a lot of questions about Sterling in the coming days leading up to UFC 300, but Kattar didn't really care about his opponent or even being in UFC 300.
His biggest concern was coming back healthy from a knee injury that halted his career for more than a year.
“It's obviously a huge opportunity,” Catal said. “But coming back from a layoff of almost a year and a half, the next fight was important for me, no matter who I fought or what card I was on. Coming back after a long break was a big moment for me. I'm excited to have a great performance.”
