Athletes
Brad Riddell Always Shows Up
Following his Fight of the Night debut, Brad Riddell is eager to make his stamp on the lightweight division.
Brad “Quake” Riddell made his Octagon debut at UFC 243 in what was the most attended event in the promotion’s history. And there isn’t much that could have made that night in Melbourne, Australia better.
Well the $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus certainly helped.
With that win over Jamie Mullarkey, Riddell is confident that he proved he belongs in the UFC and has the talent to make an immediate impact on the lightweight division.
“There’s two things you can do when there are that many people in the stadium: let the energy use you, or you can use it and I feel like I used it,” Riddell said. “It was a great night.”
It was the type of night that a fighter may never experience in their career. But aside from the extra cash in his pocket and the number added to the win column, the biggest thing that Riddell learned is that he has always been made for the UFC.
“I’m where I’m supposed to be. I’m supposed to be in the UFC and I’m supposed to be fighting the best fighters in the world. I’m going to chop my way up this tree to the top pretty quickly here,” Riddell said. “I will go out on my shield and I will fight until I can’t stand up, literally.”
In Riddell’s bout with Mullarkey, he threw a punch from his knees in the final moments of the bout. That sequence definitely showed Riddell’s heart and let the world knows that he is the type of fighter to give everything in his gas tank.
Nearly half a year has passed since Riddell, Israel Adesanya and Dan Hooker had their hands raised at UFC 243. Riddell is now confident that he will join Hooker and Kai-Kara France in continuing City Kickboxing’s momentum at UFC Auckland on Saturday.
But rather than feeling like they have something to prove, Riddell believes the team will just do what they do best.
“When that starts to feel like pressure that’s when it will start to crumble. We know that all the stuff we do in the gym and what we got taught is what needs to be done,” Riddell said. “If we just turn up and focus, everything is going to fall into play. We don’t really put that pressure on ourselves because it is detrimental.”
Standing across the Octagon from Riddell will be Magomed Mustafaev, who has won 13 of his last 14 fights. It will be a proper challenge for Riddell, and he can’t wait to show just how good he really is.
“Fans are going to be looking at two very highly-skilled, amazing fighters that both have the ability to finish it and be very clinical or go to war and butt heads. That’s why I got put on the main card; not a lot of people get put on the main card in their second fight,” Riddell said. “I turn up to fight. A lot of people say that, but I really do every single time. Mentally and physically.”
Make sure you catch Riddell take on Mustafaev, with the UFC Auckland main card starting at 7pm/4pm ET/PT and the prelim fights beginning at 4pm/1pm ET/PT.
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