Stevie Ray Ready For His First Southpaw Opponent

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Stevie Ray (19-5 MMA, 3-0 UFC) spoke about his UFC Fight Night 95 lightweight bout with Alan Patrick (13-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 95. It will be the featured preliminary fight on UFC Fight Pass before the show moves to Fox Sports 1. Here are highlights:

On his thoughts on Patrick: “He’s just another opponent. (He presents) different sorts of challenges and stuff. He’s one of those weird, unorthodox guys. He has a capoeira background, so he throws some different stuff that other people don’t. Striking-wise, he doesn’t look the best and almost looks uncomfortable in there. He’s really long and rangy. I don’t think he’s the tallest, but he looks about 6-foot-5 because of his limbs. He isn’t the most technical, but he kind of bum-rushes you. But his record is 10-1. It’s a good record.”

On fighting a southpaw: “Luckily, we have a few guys kind of like him at my training. He’s also the first southpaw I’ve fought in my whole career. Obviously, I’ve sparred with loads of southpaws. I’ve always wanted to fight a southpaw with me being southpaw, as well. I don’t know if this is his first southpaw, but yeah, my first southpaw. I’m looking forward to showing some of the stuff I use against southpaws.”

On how the fight will go: “(It will be) a little bit like my debut. I fought a Polish guy in Poland. I never got booed. It was more just silent when I walked out. I know Brazilian fans are a lot crazier than that. I’ve been at fights before where I’ve been booed. Maybe not by 16,000 (fans), but when I’m in the cage it doesn’t matter where it is. The way I see it, the pressure is on him.”