Yadong Song warns top contenders that he won’t be an easy out on the ground moving forward.
Song (23-9-1 MMA, 12-4-1 UFC) submitted Deiveson Figueiredo with a guillotine choke in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 277 headliner at Galaxy Macau in China. He used his Team Alpha Male mentor Urijah Faber’s signature move to finish the fight and earn a Performance of the Night bonus.
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Song is known for his crisp boxing, but he made Figueiredo (25-7-1 MMA, 14-7-1 UFC) pay for his numerous takedown attempts by whipping up the choke in Round 2.
“My plan was to stay calm and find the timing to knock him out, to use my right hand,” Song told UFC News post-fight. “But also, I did a lot of grappling in the camp. How about this Song? I don’t know jiu-jitsu? Who doesn’t know jiu-jitsu? I just don’t want to show it. I would like to knock people out, use my boxing. So if you want grappling, let’s grapple. It doesn’t matter.”
Song bounced back from his close decision loss to former champion Sean O’Malley at UFC 324 in January. He has now won four of his past six, and cemented his spot as a top five bantamweight.
“I just proved myself again,” Song said. “I’m in the top five. I’m the best in the world. I want to stay active. Fighting is also practice. I need to fight more and gain more experience.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Song silences doubters at UFC Macau: ‘Who doesn’t know jiu-jitsu?’
