LAS VEGAS – [autotag]AJ Dobson[/autotag] had no intention of playing it safe at Dana White’s Contender Series 40.
Dobson (6-0) faced fellow unbeaten knockout artist Hashem Arkhagha in the night’s headliner on Tuesday in what was a wild affair.
Both men came out swinging, but it was Dobson who was able to connect with the harder shots and stumble Arkhagha. The Jordanian showed incredible toughness, but Dobson never let him off the hook, earning the first-round submission and a UFC contract.
“I usually don’t fight like that,” Dobson told MMA Junkie and other reporters in attendance at the UFC Apex following Tuesday’s Dana White’s Contender Series 40 event. “I’m usually a lot more technical, and I like to display my skills, but I saw that there were no finishes, and I know the Contender Series, Dana was saying he wants you to be exciting. Michael Bisping said you’ve got to go video game style and try to go for the win, so I wanted to really throw caution to the wind, give an exciting fight. Next fight, I’ll be a little bit more technical, but I wanted to kind of just blow it out this first one.”
Dobson already has an idea of who and when he’d like to compete, as he hopes to share the same Dec. 4 card as his training partner [autotag]Matt Brown[/autotag].
“It would be amazing if I could get on the card of my mentor, Matt Brown,” Dobson said. “That would be a full circle, dream come true. It would be unbelievable. I definitely want to fight Bryan Battle. I was actually supposed to be on ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ I had the opportunity to be on ‘TUF,’ and then I got the opportunity to be on like the first week of Contender Series, and then they pushed it back to this week. So if I was on ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ there would have been a different champion, and we both fought for a similar promotion … and they got me ranked higher than him, so Bryan Battle would be a great fight.”
To see the full interview with Dobson, check out the video above.
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