Bryan Battle Aims to Finish Takashi Sato and Make Statement After Moving Down

Bryan Battle feels ready to take over the Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight division. “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 29 middleweight winner Battle (7-1, 2-0 UFC) resolved some unfinished business with Treason Gore in his latest appearance, where he upended his adversary on all scorecards. Following the victory, “Poor Bear” opted to move down to the 170-pound category, where he will soon meet Takashi Sato at UFC on ESPN 40. Ahead of the event, Battle commented on his decision to drop a weight class, aiming to start on the right foot and make a statement against his next opponent. Currently, Battle has rattled off six consecutive wins, five of them finishes inside two rounds. Should Battle deliver another impressive finish, he thinks that he would join the group of 170-pound up-and-comers.

“Takashi, he’s a tough dude. He's got two knockouts in the UFC, and obviously, he killed the regional scene overseas. He's a tough dude, but I'm going to be a little bit too much for him in a bunch of different areas. There's several different ways I can see this fight going. I don't really see it getting out of the second round though, whether it ends up on the ground or whether we stay on the feet. I’m feeling my s*it right now, that's what I going to say. I'm going to come out there and get after Tekashi. I'd like to make a statement, make a real claim to the division. There are a lot of really hot guys, a lot of guys with a lot of momentum in the welterweight division. I got to have a performance that gets me up there with [people like] Ian Garry, Shavkat Rakhmonov, Sean Brady and Khamzat Chimaev, you know what I'm saying? There's a bunch of young guys just taking over the welterweight right now, and I got to get in that group so I can start slowly taking those guys out too.”

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(00:36) Working to improve his skills
(02:23) Defeating Gore in February
(03:47) The adjustments he made after that fight
(06:22) Moving down to welterweight
(08:19) His body’s reaction to the new weight category
(09:57) Having his dad in his corner for the first time
(11:11) Changing his walkout song
(12:59) Picking Thiago Santos vs. Jamahal Hill
(13:53) Predicting to finish his opponent
(16:16) Acknowledgments
(16:53) Outro