Siyar Bahadurzada Positive About His Fight At UFC Fight Night 115

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Siyar Bahadurzada (22-6-1 MMA, 2-2 UFC) said that even though he’s coming off of another long hiatus, he’s still positive about his middleweight fight with Rob Wilkinson (11-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 115. Here are highlights:

On his hiatus: “There were some things I had to take care of, and that’s the reason I couldn’t fight. Everything is taken care of – I’m fit, I’m hungry, I’m back, and I’m ready to perform. It’s easy to be positive when everything’s going well – everyone’s positive when things are going well. But if you can remain positive when things aren’t going well, I think that makes a difference. I’m that type of person who remains positive no matter what.”

On his few fights in the UFC: “I’ve been in the UFC for five years, but because of injuries and and obstacles, I couldn’t perform. But I’m not the 27-year-old boy who came to the UFC. I’m a grown-up man now. I’m experienced. I do things differently. I train differently. I diet differently. I’m a much better version of myself than when I just came to the UFC – who knocked out Paulo Thiago in 42 seconds.”

On his goals: “It’s one of my goals, to be a main-(event fighter). Co-main event is a good step toward that one, and I like to crush my goals. When I heard the UFC was coming to Holland, I had a long layoff and I wanted to perform. I wanted to fight, no matter what, in Holland. Middleweight was a good choice to come back after a layoff, and we’ll take it from there.”