With the level of competition Volkan Oezdemir continues to face, he knows he can re-enter title contention in no time.
Oezdmir (17-5 MMA, 5-4 UFC) meets Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 267 on Oct. 30 in another tough outing to add to his already stacked resume. Despite a couple setbacks in his career, few have had the strength of schedule the former title challenger Oezdemir has had.
The 32-year-old already has been in there with the likes of former dual-champion Daniel Cormier, former title challengers Dominick Reyes and Anthony Smith, rising contender Aleksandar Rakic and former Rizin FF champ Jiri Prochazka.
But he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“That’s what I signed up for,” Oezdemir told MMA Junkie. “I signed up to fight the best guys in the world. That’s the only way I’m going to prove to everybody that I am the best, and that’s what you do whenever you sign to the UFC. You sign to fight the best, and sometimes people can choose.
“You see some people that say no to some matchups because they choose the easy road or something to get closer or a faster way to the title, a safer way. But that’s not me at all. I’m looking for the best fights, for the best opponents. I need to feel the challenge because I also know that if I beat everybody on my way up, nobody is going to deny my place at the top.”
Ankalaev (15-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) is being touted by many as a future champion, so if Oezdemir can rebound from his loss to Prochazka by beating the streaking Russian, he expects his name to be mentioned amongst the top contenders.
“A lot of people are telling me that I’m fighting killers that are on many-fight win streaks, but that’s actually the way I’m doing it because this keeps me in the conversation,” Oezdemir said. “All the people that I’ve been fighting except one have been title challengers or they’ve been in the discussion for a title, so that’s always something that’s on the top of my mind. One victory against one of those guys brings me back to title contention.
“He’s been winning his fights – he’s been really good. He’s a patient guy. He’s a strategist. He likes to build his fights, but he’s actually fighting with power, so it’s actually a tough opponent. We can almost say he has a 100 percent fight victories because his lone defeat came very surprisingly. But that’s the fight game – anything can happen until the last second, and that’s also what makes the fight game very interesting.”
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