KANSAS CITY, Mo. – UFC light heavyweight Ion Cutelaba is excited to welcome a former heavyweight to his division.
On the main card of UFC on ESPN 44, Cutelaba (16-9-1 MMA, 5-8-1 UFC) faces Tanner Boser in a light heavyweight bout. For Boser (20-9-1 MMA, 4-4 UFC), it will be his first UFC fight at 205 pounds, a division he has only fought in once in 2014.
Cutelaba is excited for the challenge of taking on an opponent who is used to fighting at a higher weight.
“I think he’s going to feel really great and is going to be really confident in this,” Cutelaba told MMA Junkie and other reporters through an interpreter at Wednesday’s media day. “I knew about him. I saw his other fights in a different weight division, but I’m very interested to see what I’ll do and what I’ll be like in a fight against him.”
It’s an important fight for Cutelaba, who has been stopped in three straight fights. His last win came by unanimous decision against Devin Clark in September 2021, but believes his recent skid comes with the territory of fighting high-level opponents.
“Of course I took a lot of lessons out of those losses, but this is part of our job – to learn the lessons, to make improvements, and to keep getting up to keep working to keep moving forward,” Cutelaba said.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 44.
