After freshly entering the UFC top-15 rankings, Brisbane based American Ben Nguyen is eager to prove that the next bunch of flyweight prospects are there ready to compete for a chance to fight the division’s champion Demetrious Johnson.
“I think he (Demetrious Johnson) has cleared up to a certain point,” Nguyen told The Fight News Australia podcast.
“The division has a lot of prospects coming in. We have myself, Justin Scoggins, Louis Smolka, Sergio Pettis and everyone on that end of the top 15 are up-and-coming and we are good. There is no disputing that. We just have not had the chance to come in and show the world how good we are because we are stuck on prelim cards.”
Riding a nine-fight win streak, 27-year-old Nguyen gets his chance to knock-off fellow prospect Louis Smolka and move one step closer to his goals but he won’t be concentrating on his opponent too much.
“I don’t like to look at other people and kind of be in shock.
“Like this guy is such a great striker or this guy is a such great wrestler. It’s all focused on me. What can I do? I can only control myself. I can’t control him so why should I be focused on him?”
Currently splitting his training between Integrated MMA and Tiger Muay-Thai, Nguyen will be travelling back to his hometown to fight Smolka and will be looking at finishing his fight camp there, with his former team.
“It’s unbelievable how I left, did a bunch of things. Got to the UFC and now I’m back in my hometown, Sioux Falls, South Dakota doing what I’m doing now. It’s crazy.”
Ben Nguyen challenges Louis Smolka on the UFC Fight Night 91 card in South Dakota on 13 July (14 July in Australia) which will be broadcast live on Fox Sports Australia. The event will be headlined by lightweight clash between Tony Ferguson and Mike Chiesa.
Listen to the full interview with Ben Nguyen here.
