Dan Ige is looking to cement himself as a legit featherweight contender on Saturday night.
In the main event of UFC Vegas 29, Ige is set to fight fourth-ranked contender, Korean Zombie in a pivotal bout for the featherweight division. With the title fight happening in the fall and Max Holloway vs. Yair Rodriguez in July, Ige knows if he’s going to prove he belongs at the top he needs to set the bar this weekend.
“You have Max Holloway fighting Yair Rodriguez and you have Brian Ortega challenging Volkanovski for the title. Then, you have myself and Korean Zombie. Korean Zombie is number four in the world so a big win over the Zombie puts me in the mix,” Ige said at media day. “The good thing is, I’m the first one up so I have to go out there and set the standard, I have to set the bar. I have to show and prove I am a contender.
“I guess you just have to see how all these fights play out with Max and Yair in July and these other guys in September, I think, I just have to be ready,” Ige continued. “You never know, someone falls out, might get a title shot, you never know. I don’t know, I’m just going to be ready, I plan on beating the Zombie and we’ll go from there.”
Although the winner of Holloway-Rodriguez would be in line for a title shot, as Ige states, people can fall out of fights. The main focus for the Hawaiian is to get his hand raised on Saturday in good fashion and cement his case as a true contender in the stacked featherweight division.
Dan Ige is currently ranked eighth at featherweight and enters this main event coming off a 22-second KO over Gavin Tucker. Prior to that, he dropped a decision to Calvin Kattar on Fight Island last July in his first main event.
Who do you think will win, Dan Ige or Korean Zombie?
