Calvin Kattar Still Chasing Perfection

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At UFC 249 in Jacksonville, Florida, Calvin Kattar was able to pull off a feat that only two others were able to reach in the violent 46-fight career of Jeremy Stephens: End the steel-jawed fighters’ night early via strikes. It’s an accomplishment that even the most confident of fighters might be unsure if they could pull off. But for “The Boston Finisher,” it was a result of the work he puts in everyday at the gym. And is just another goal checked off on his bucket list of Ultimate Fighting Championship accomplishments.

“I feel like I can beat anybody in the division. It just doesn’t always pan out like that, but that’s what we work for. Maybe in my perfect outcome I would have slipped another half inch to the left and maybe not got my nose broken in the process of landing that elbow. But at the end of the day, I’ll trade a rook for a queen any day of the week. It was a good fight ender [and] Jeremy’s a tough guy. I’d be lying if I said my goals stopped there. I’m not done yet, and I look forward to keeping this momentum and parlaying that into one of these contenders we’ve got floating around in the Top 7.”

In his conversation with Sherdog, along with breaking down his landmark win, Kattar spoke about the days leading up to the bout as the UFC tested fighters and attempted to maintain social distancing guidelines in the staff hotel.