UFC featherweight Dennis Bermudez battles Jeremy Stephens on the main card of UFC 189 this Saturday in Las Vegas and recently spoke to MMAOddsBreaker on Episode 112 of “The Parting Shot Podcast” to discuss this fight and variety of other topics. UFC 189 match up with Jeremy Stephens “I’m faster than him, stronger than him. [I see it being] all around dominance, getting in his face, getting him tired. Just making him super uncomfortable, putting him in uncomfortable positions. Ideally I want him to roll over for me after I’m done with him.” What his 1st round loss to Ricardo Lamas taught him in his last fight “Realistically the only thing the Ricardo Lamas fight taught me was, you’re in there for 15 minutes, [and] it’s not a sprint. I was just real eager to get after Ricardo, get into an absolute fight. I just kind of rushed the gun, stepped right into a well-placed punch. When a guy gets dropped in general, the next punch is usually a big overhand while the guy is down. I was getting ready for that, I went to shoot. Then he put the guillotine on, I was like ‘Really this is your guillotine dude?” Once he turned it over I [knew I was done]. Before that [punch] I needed to remind myself to slow down, relax a little more.” Rivalry between Long Island MMA and Serra-Longo “It’s all good there is no rivalry there, we’re all buds. From time to time we’ll cross train. If they have a guy over there at their camp that fights similar to a guy in our camp, we’ll do some cross training. But [they’re] good people.” MMA bill failing again to get through in New York “I just really thought we had it this year, with Lorenzo Ferttia and his team in Albany at the senate building. I just thought we had spoken to all the right people, we all the right people that we needed for this vote to get onto the floor and get passed on our side. It wouldn’t boggle my mind if money entered somebody else’s pockets. Everybody this year were really cool. A lot of these guys are fans of the sport, they watch and tune in. We fell short again. We’re even closer than we’ve ever been so that’s been an upside to it.” Replacement for Jose Aldo in the UFC 189 main event “The UFC never contacted me back. [But] I have already got an opponent, so if I would have stepped up they would have had to find Stephens an opponent or vice versa.” Prediction for Chad Mendes vs. Conor McGregor “I got Chad Mendes. Chad’s super tough and I think he beats him. I think [wrestling will be the difference]. Any striker I don’t think wants to get keep taken down, [it’s] time to respect the takedown. It alters how [McGregor will] perform with their striking game.” Prediction for his fight Saturday night “I think [I can finish him] I think I can get him in the positions I want to get him in. Take him down; get him against the cage, it’s going to be a long night for him. There are very few people, who can keep up with my cardio and relentlessness. Good luck with him trying to do that.” Where a win over Stephens puts him in the division “[Once I] beat Jeremy Stephens, then win another one. That will put right back into title contention.” You can follow Dennis on Twitter @MenaceBermudez and you can listen to the full audio version of the interview below (47 mins in)
