PHILADELPHIA – It didn’t end the way Sodiq Yusuff hoped it would, and it wasn’t over quite so early.
But a unanimous decision victory over Sheymon Moraes at UFC on ESPN 2 will have to do, even if Yusuff didn’t feel like he brought his very best stuff.
“All Nigerians are guaranteed one 30 percent fight,” Yusuff told reporters after the bout, referencing UFC welterweight champ Kamaru Usman’s famous post-fight remark. “That was my 30 percent.”
Still, it was good enough to win and extend his overall winning streak to four straight fights, with the last two victories coming in the UFC. Next, Yusuff said, he wants a crack at jiu-jitsu specialist Kron Gracie. Why? Let him explain.
“I feel like, beating Sheymon I just beat a guy that’s at the top of his skillset in his traditional martial art,” Yusuff said. “And the best person in jiu-jitsu that we have right now is Kron. So if I could get both martial arts out of the way, I would like to fight the best boxer in my division too. One at a time, go down the list. If I could beat Kron, that’s just another feather in my cap on my way to being the best in the world.”
For Yusuff, that quest is about more than just personal glory. As he explained, his family back home in Nigeria is depending on him, and he considers it his duty to sacrifice and succeed for them. According to Yusuff, it also helps to have their support in the more difficult moments.
“In that second round, I got caught with a flush head kick,” Yusuff said. “I was like, whoa. If I wasn’t African, I would have been out. I figured the only reason it didn’t hurt me was all the prayers that my mom was probably shouting in the audience.”
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