Su Mudaerji said that he had a “weird feeling” after discovering that his original opponent, Allan Nascimento, had been replaced by Tim Elliott.
The pair will fight at UFC Fight Night 233 this weekend. Elliott took the after recently signing a four-fight contract with the UFC, and Nascimento was forced out of the bout due to injury. The change, however, was kind of a surprise for Mudaerji.
“I was training with Song Yadong and in the middle of the training, my agent called me and told me my opponent is pulling out, can’t fight with me in this fight,” Mudaerji said via interpreter at a pre-fight news conference this Wednesday. “In the beginning, I thought they were joking with me. I didn’t believe them until I saw the paper. It’s a weird feeling.”
The Chinese fighter didn’t show any worry about taking the new opponent but noted that Elliott has much more experience than him in the UFC.
“My first thought after I got the name was this guy got a lot of experience in the UFC because he’s been around for quite a long time,” Mudaerji said. “I know this guy.”
Despite coming from a recent loss to Muhammad Mokaev, the American indeed boasts a long list of experiences in the industry with a record of 19-13-1 MMA/8-11 UFC. For Elliott, nonetheless, his list of fights is not enough, expressing his intention to face more bouts and show off his newly acquired cage skills despite his age. Elliott believes Mudaerji is the opponent who should experience this.
“I want to fight a striker. I want to try to work some of my striking,” Elliott said. “I haven’t really been able to do that. Through my whole career, I’ve kind of been eager to get to the ground. Even in the Mokaev fight, I was winning the striking portion, and I still had this eagerness to get him to the ground. But when I’m sparring in practice, I mostly stay on my feet. So I would like to show the new skills that I have, and I haven’t really been able to do that in my last few fights. I’m getting older now, and I’m running out of chances to really show how good I am and how good I can be, so I feel like Su is a really good opponent for that. …
“Honestly, I want to fight for three rounds. I want to put on a performance. I like to have time in the cage. I like to get takedowns and break records. That’s the place where I feel the most comfortable in my life, is when that cage door shuts. The more time I can spend in there, the better I feel.”
