Brady Hiestand knew he had the cardio advantage over Batgerel Danaa and thought the longer the fight went, the better it was for him.
Entering the fight at UFC Vegas 71, Hiestand was the underdog but was confident he had all the tools to win. In the first round, Hiestand thought he had a lot of success and went to his corner thinking he won the opening round. In the second round, Danaa dropped him and dominated the round, so Hiestand thought it was 1-1 but still wasn’t going to leave it to the judges so knew he needed to get a stoppage.
“I thought I won the first and even going back to watch it after I still think I won that first round,” Hiestand said to BJPENN.com. “I outstruck him like two-to-one and the only thing he did was push me against the cage and I even dropped him at the end of the first. With that, I figured I had the first in the bag but the second I definitely lost, I got beat up on bottom, and I got dropped right off the bat so I gave him the second round.
“Going into the third, I thought it was 1-1 but my coach made sure to tell me if I am on top don’t go for a submission, just land strikes and try and finish him,” Hiestand continued. “The goal was to inflict damage once I got on top and I’m lucky I did because the finish came and I was down on all the judges’ scorecards.”
In the third round of his UFC Vegas 71 scrap, Brady Hiestand got Batgerel Danaa to the canvas and started raining ground and pound. As Hiestand was landing shots, the ref told Danaa to move multiple times which he didn’t so the ref stepped in and stopped the fight.
After the fight was stopped, many thought it was an early stoppage but Hiestand disagrees. He also points to the fact that Danaa didn’t even protest the stoppage after the fight.
“Not at all. I actually looked at the ref to see how many more strikes I needed to land because he told him like four times you need to do something,” Hiestand said. “I know there are some guys out there saying it was an early stoppage, but you can’t get hit 58 times in the face, not move and not have the fight be stopped. I’m not surprised by the stoppage and it definitely was not a bad one. As well, once the fight was over, he got up and he wasn’t all the way there with his balance and he didn’t even protest the stoppage at all.”
With the TKO win, Brady Hiestand improved to 2-1 in the UFC and hopes to return at UFC 289 in Vancouver, Canada. As a Spokane native, it is practically a home fight and he hopes he can take on Christian Rodriguez on that card.
“I want to get on the Vancouver card in June or either International Fight Week or London in July. Any of those, I’m ready to go, my body feels good… I called out Christian Rodriguez and I think that is a great matchup. He has a lot of attention around him right now with his last win over Raul Rosas Jr. so I’m down to scrap with that dude. But, if he’s scared I’m down for whoever,” Hiestand concluded.
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