mma / News

Andre Fili Jokes That Steve Austin Is Next For Him, Hopes For Title Shot This Year

February 20, 2019 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas

Andre Fili spoke with reporters following his win over Myles Jury at UFC on ESPN 1. Highlights are below:

Joking that he’d like to face Steve Austin: “You know what I’m looking for?. I’m looking for ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin to come out of retirement, loser leaves town, hell in a cell. ‘Touchy’ 3:16.”

On his performance against Jury: “I’ll always nitpick my performance because I want to be perfect. That performance wasn’t perfect, but I’m happy with the win.”

On getting hit with a backfist in the second round: “He threw it three times. I saw it every single time. Even the time he hit me, I watched it coming, like, ‘He’s not going to hit me with it. Oh, he hit me with it.’ It took me a second.”

On Jury standing and striking against him: “He was spitting blood at me and telling me to come on. The way I grew up, basically I was getting in fistfights every weekend from eight grade to, like, 21 years old – until I got arrested for it and stopped doing it. So, like, I love confrontation. It gets me aroused. I love confrontation. When I’m bleeding and he’s bleeding, he’s spitting blood and I’m spitting blood and he’s talking and I’m talking to him back, that (expletive) is fighting. We’re having some fun. I love this.”

On making a case for a title shot this year: “I just know that if I can rack four wins up this year – which is the goal, I want to fight basically every quarter – three or four good, solid wins like I had tonight, and really show that I am the best dude in this division, and then fight whoever has the belt. I got love for (Max) Holloway. It’s not me calling him out, but the only reason to be in this game is to be the best guy in the division. So whoever has the belt, that’s who I want to fight. I want the belt. I’ve been in this company for five years, and it’s been up and down, up and down, up and down. Now I really have some traction. I can really start basically getting what I want. Life’s a popularity contest. It’s no different in this company. When people want to see you fight and you’re on a win streak, you get what you want a little more. Now that I’ve put some real wins together and I’ve got some real traction, I think I should start getting what I want a little bit more, and that will just snowball into a title shot. Whoever has the belt, that’s got to be the end goal. If you’re in this game, and you’re not trying to be the champion, I think you’re wasting your time.”

Joking about moving up to heavyweight: “You give me three months and some pizza, I’ll rack up to about ’95, 200. Where you at Stone Cold? After that, Ngannou, Lesnar. I might fight super heavyweight.”