James Vick Wants the Winner of Anthony Pettis vs. Dustin Poirier

James Vick spoke following his win over Joseph Duffy at UFC 217 about wanting bigger-name opponents, his performance and more. The highlights are below, via MMAjunkie:

On his performance: “What else can I do? That was my third finish in a row, against a high-level opponent. That was the first time Joe Duffy’s ever been knocked out, and he had 18 professional fights. I better have got some attention.”

On wanting to compete at UFC Fight Night 126: “I’ll get on the card, but what I want is that main-event spot. I’m 8-1. That’s one of the highest winning percentages in the UFC. It’s time to move forward now. I’m 30 years old. My goal is to be a world champion now. How many Joe Duffys do I have to beat? I want the winner of next week, Anthony Pettis vs. Dustin Poirier. I don’t want to shoot too low with a No. 3 guy that I’m not going to get, but Pettis or Poirier is ranked No. 8 in the world. Whoever wins is going to take that. So yeah, whoever wins that I want. The timeframe is perfect. Give them a couple weeks to heal up and get in camp.”

On wanting to get bigger-name opponents: “Sean [Shelby] has been very good to me recently. He tried as hard as he could to get a ranked guy, but they don’t want to fight me. They literally do not want to fight me. You can’t put a gun to a guy’s head. The thing is I’m in the high-risk, low-reward category right now. So I want to put myself into the high-reward category by making my name bigger. I’m doing my part, so hopefully the UFC, they’ve helped me recently in giving me a good push, and hopefully they continue to do so.”