MMA

Volkan Oezdemir Reacts to Ilir Latifi’s Withdrawal From UFC Stockholm

Joe HulbertMay 31, 2019, 2:30 pm

Volkan Oezdemir reacts to Ilir Latifi withdrawing from their UFC Fight Night Stockholm co-main event.

Just hours after having his co-main event fight scrapped, Volkan Oezdemir can only look forward following this latest frustration.

Originally scheduled to take on Ilir Latifi at UFC Fight Night Stockholm, Oezdemir was desperate to return to the win column after three straight losses. However, those plans will now have to wait, with a back injury forcing Latifi to withdraw. Speaking to Dan Hardy’s ‘Full Reptile’ YouTube Channel, Oezdemir discussed his reaction to the news. “I wanted to be back in the cage ASAP because I wanted to cover up the memory from my last fight . . . but now this happens, bad luck after bad luck right?” he said.

Moving forward though, Oezdemir is already considering his next fight date. As for UFC 242 in Abu Dhabi though, ‘No Time’ feels like that may be a little too long to wait. “That would be nice but it’s kind of far away. I wanna fight you know, I really wanna fight. It’s not like I wanna wait and chill. I’ll be training on Monday anyway so I don’t wanna push my body for a f**king long period of time, I wanna be fighting ASAP. But the only thing I can right now would be Canada. Maybe? July 28^th.”

When it comes to the opponent for that eventual return, Oezdemir suddenly sees a potential rematch in his future. “I wanna fight you know? I knew I couldn’t get the rematch with Reyes right away because he broke his nose. Well, I broke his nose. But then now, he’s probably gonna be ready so I’m gonna get my rematch with him so that would be nice. Maybe that would be a possibility for me.”

Regardless of who Oezdemir fights next, it seems clear that in his mind at least, ‘No Time’ has no time to waste.

UFC Fight Night Stockholm moves on nonetheless, now a 12 fight card airing on ESPN+. Fightful will have live coverage for the event and it’s full card can be found below:

Main Card (ESPN+ – 1 pm ET)

Alexander Gustafsson (18-5) vs. Anthony Smith (31-14)

Jimi Manuwa (17-5) vs. Aleksandar Rakic (11-1)

Makwan Amirkhani (14-3) vs. Chris Fishgold (18-2-1)

Damir Hadzovic (13-4) vs. Christos Giagos (16-7)

Daniel Teymur (6-3) vs. Jo Sung-Bin (9-0)

Prelims (ESPN+ – 10 am ET)

Sergey Khandozhko (25-5-1) vs. Rostem Akman (5-0)

Tonya Evinger (19-7, 1NC) vs. Lina Lansberg (8-4)

Leonardo Santos (16-3-1) vs. Stevie Ray (22-8)

Nick Hein (14-4, 1NC) vs. Frank Camacho (21-7)

Bea Malecki (2-0) vs. Eduarda Santana (3-0)