Marcus McGhee ecstatic to fight Petr Yan at UFC Abu Dhabi: “My game is to finish guys”

Marcus McGhee was surprised he got the call to fight Petr Yan at UFC Abu Dhabi.

McGhee is ranked 13th at bantamweight and thought he’d get a top-10 opponent next. Yet, he got the call to fight former champion and third-ranked bantamweight Petr Yan at UFC bantamweight, which was a surprise to him.

“Yeah, absolutely, how can you not be surprised with the position I’m in? I know I’m winning fights, and I’m on this win streak, but I still just got into the UFC,” McGhee said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “It was surprising to get the call, exciting, but surprising… How do you say no to a fight like this? Especially when you are someone like me who wants to find out where I stand in this division. On top of that, I haven’t fought, and I want to be active.”

Heading into the fight against Yan at UFC Abu Dhabi, McGhee knows all the talk that the Russian is a slow starter. However, McGhee doesn’t think Yan will start slow here as he expects him to be aggressive from the get-go.

“I think three rounds are different than five rounds, and he will approach the fight differently. I have not gone five rounds, so I can see why people think it would favor him,” McGhee said. “On the three rounds, it makes sense, and I think he’s going to be there for the first round; it’s going to be a high-paced fight. He knows when to fight and when to go and when not to go. He knows he can’t drop the first round.”

Marcus McGhee is looking to finish Petr Yan at UFC Abu Dhabi

Entering UFC Abu Dhabi, Marcus McGhee is well aware that he’s a massive underdog and people are writing him off.

Yet, McGhee has confidence in his skills that he will be able to outstrike Petr Yan and even possibly finish him.

“I’m prepared for it to go everywhere. He comes to fight, and I’m ready to fight,” McGhee said. “A fight goes everywhere… I’m going to try to finish him. Do I think I will finish him? Who knows. But, I’m going in there with the plan of finding my shots and getting him out of there. My game is to finish guys, so why would I change that now? Be a sniper and finish guys.”

Should McGhee win, he’d be a top-three bantamweight, but he doesn’t think he will be in line for a title shot. Instead, he believes he’ll need another win or two.

“Just being present. Maybe that does happen, I don’t foresee that happening, I think Cory Sandhagen deserves the next shot. I would argue that everybody in the top five deserves the shot over me, just because I beat Petr Yan doesn’t put me in the title contention,” McGhee said.