Steve Erceg will look to turn his career around at UFC on ESPN 72.
Erceg (12-4 MMA, 3-3 UFC) takes on Ode Osbourne (13-8 MMA, 5-6 UFC) in a bantamweight bout in Saturday’s co-main event (ESPN, ESPN+) at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Erceg was first booked against Alex Perez, but Perez withdrew due to injury. He was then matched up with HyungSung Park, but Park was pulled to face Tatsuro Taira in this past Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 71 headliner. Erceg finally ended up with Osbourne at a weight class above.
Despite the numerous change of opponents, Erceg was only concerned with whether or not he’s fighting.
“Honestly, I don’t think it’s that tricky,” Erceg told MMA Junkie on Monday. “The hardest part is staying disciplined when you don’t know if you’ve got an opponent or not, with your diet and stuff, because all I’m thinking about is eating a burger or having a cake. So, I’ve got to stay disciplined until I get the news that either I don’t have an opponent or this one I found out I’m fighting at bantamweight, so a little bit more enjoyment this week.”
Erceg said the UFC reached out to him to replace Amir Albazi against Taira, but he turned it down because of the inconvenient timing. After losing three straight fights, the former title challenger admits the step down in competition is probably a blessing in disguise.
“Obviously all that sort of stuff plays into your mind,” Erceg said. “It’s hard because I always want to say yes to the UFC. I’ve always been like, ‘Yeah, I’ll fight anybody, anytime, anywhere,’ and it’s like at some point you’re fighting for your spot in the UFC, and you don’t want to keep putting yourself in a position where you’re at a small detriment, and I’m 100 percent willing to fight Taira five rounds or whatever, I just couldn’t make it happen this time.”
Erceg’s losses came to UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja, former title challenger Kai Kara-France, and former champion Brandon Moreno.
“It’s hard because if you lose – the guys I’ve lost to are all like the best guys in the world,” Erceg said. “So you go, that’s a caveat to losing, but at the same time losing is still losing, and if you lose six in a row, but they’re all to the top six guys, you still lost six in a row.
“I know at some point I have to go from competing with the best guys in the world to beating the best guys in the world, and I’m doing everything I can to make sure I will and can do that as far as mental, as far as training, making adjustments everywhere I can, and try to build on the things that are working as well. I really do think I can be a world champion. I’ve just got to make it all click I guess.”
