Andre Fili sees nothing but incentives in his short-notice opportunity against Dan Ige.
Fili (23-10 MMA, 11-9 UFC) replaced Lerone Murphy on about three weeks’ notice to take on Ige (17-7 MMA, 9-6 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 236 (ESPN+) co-main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Fili is coming off a first-round TKO of Lucas Almeida this past December at UFC 296 and is happy to kick off 2024 with a big opportunity against top 15-ranked featherweight Ige.
“I have the utmost respect for him, and it wasn’t a fight I was hunting,” Fili said at Wednesday’s UFC Fight Night 236 media day. “I wasn’t calling him out. They presented the fight, and I took it. It’s time to get paid and it’s time to get a big win.
“It’s time to get these big opportunities rolling and keep this momentum going. I’m incredibly excited. It’s a great opponent, it’s a great card, it’s a great everything, and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
Fili, 33, still has aspirations of becoming UFC champion. He will look to string together a winning streak for the first time since 2019.
“All these fights are a chance at development, at growth, at testing yourself, at challenging yourself, at overcoming those challenges,” Fili said. “That’s what excited me. Also, getting f*cking paid excited me. So running up two checks back-to-back at the beginning of the year and still having time to fight two more times this year, that really excited me.
“It’s a great matchup, but I’m just so focused on myself it kind of doesn’t matter who it is. My last fight, I was basically the first fight on the card, now I’m the co-main event. Who cares? A fight’s a fight, and I’m here to win a bunch of money, get a number next to my name, and most of all, just make myself and the people around me proud.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 236.
