Marcus McGhee was surprised he got the call to fight Petr Yan at UFC Abu Dhabi.
McGhee is ranked 13th at bantamweight and thought he’d get a top-10 opponent next. Yet, he got the call to fight former champion and third-ranked bantamweight Petr Yan at UFC bantamweight, which was a surprise to him.
“Yeah, absolutely, how can you not be surprised with the position I’m in? I know I’m winning fights, and I’m on this win streak, but I still just got into the UFC,” McGhee said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “It was surprising to get the call, exciting, but surprising… How do you say no to a fight like this? Especially when you are someone like me who wants to find out where I stand in this division. On top of that, I haven’t fought, and I want to be active.”
Heading into the fight against Yan at UFC Abu Dhabi, McGhee knows all the talk that the Russian is a slow starter. However, McGhee doesn’t think Yan will start slow here as he expects him to be aggressive from the get-go.
“I think three rounds are different than five rounds, and he will approach the fight differently. I have not gone five rounds, so I can see why people think it would favor him,” McGhee said. “On the three rounds, it makes sense, and I think he’s going to be there for the first round; it’s going to be a high-paced fight. He knows when to fight and when to go and when not to go. He knows he can’t drop the first round.”