[autotag]Chris Daukaus[/autotag] got a good push Saturday and he’s planing to keep the momentum going.
The UFC heavyweight picked up a first-round TKO win over Aleksei Oleinik in the main card of UFC Fight Night 185 in Las Vegas. The result places Daukaus (11-3 MMA, 3-0 UFC) on a four-fight winning streak, and unbeaten in the promotion since joining in August 2020.
Oleinik was ranked No. 10 in the UFC’s official heavyweight rankings. And though Daukaus was not ranked heading into UFC Fight Night 185, he has no interest fighting anyone below Oleinik – just upwards.
“Realistically, I don’t care (who I fight) as long as they’re ranked higher than me,” Daukaus said at the post-fight news conference. “I just want to fight guys who are making the most sense. I don’t want to take any steps back. This was a step forward. This was a step on this journey and I’m not going back from here. It’s simply we’re going forward to the top and today was the first step.”
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Oleinik was a big step up for Daukaus and he had no problem delivering.
Oleinik is a 75-fight veteran who’s beat some of the world’s best heavyweights, including Fabricio Werdum, Mark Hunt and Mirko “Cro Cop,” just to name a few.
Daukaus knew very well who Oleinik was entering Saturday’s fight, but once the cage door closed, the Russian heavyweight was just another opponent.
“I treat every opponent as if they’re just another body in there,” Daukaus said. “I’m not trying to make these people out to be the monsters that people say they are or look at all the accolades or anything like that.
“When I step in that cage, there’s no face to that body and there’s just simply, I have to go in there and I have a task at hand and I need to handle that task. If I start putting all the accomplishments that everyone has really accomplished, especially Oleinik’s 20-year career, I’d lose my mind in there. So that’s just something I have to do.”
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