LONDON – Now that Sam Patterson’s UFC career is about to begin, he’s looking to a recent champion for some inspiration.
Patterson (10-1-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC), who won his way into the promotion through Dana White’s Contender Series this past fall, takes on fellow UFC newcomer Yanal Ashmoz (6-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) on the UFC 286 prelims Saturday at The O2 in London. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews and early prelims on ESPN+.
Patterson, from England, has found some motivation from Leon Edwards, who puts his welterweight title on the line for the first time in the main event in a rematch with former champion Kamaru Usman. Instead of departing England for bigger training opportunities in the U.S., Edwards stayed with who got him there and won the belt with a dramatic comeback head-kick knockout.
Patterson hopes for a similar path.
“I made a point in this camp to stay with my team,” Patterson said at Wednesday’s UFC 286 media day. “What we’ve done has worked. I got here with the team around me. I feel like since Leon has said about doing it, it’s become a thing that he has proved that you do not need to go to the States or these big gyms to get to the UFC or even stay in the UFC. And I look forward to Saturday night showing that I got to the UFC, and I’m going to win in the UFC with the team I have around me.
“Don’t get me wrong – I look forward to, in the future, traveling around and adding to my game, learning from other gyms and stuff like that. But that will be under David Lee. Dave will tell me which one we’re going to and help me level up the game. But for this one being in my hometown, I didn’t want it to be a narrative of me traveling somewhere else. I kind of want this to be we got to the UFC and we won in the UFC with my team from Wallford – Team Crossface under David Lee.”
Check out Patterson’s full media day interview in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 286.
