Brian Stann considers himself too small to be fighting at light heavyweight, so he is dropping down to the middleweight division, MMAJunkie.com is reporting.
Stann (8-3 MMA, 2-2 UFC) took a fight with Paul Davis at UFC 109, a decision criticized by many in the MMA world. Stann said he felt like the UFC was using him as a stepping stone by matching him up against Davis and he wanted to prove them wrong.
It didn’t happen. Davis dominated Stann by using his wrestling skills, scoring a unanimous decision win.
Stann has had trouble with bigger light heavyweights taking him down in the past and he believes that even though he’s dropping in weight class, his opponents will try and use the same strategy against him.
“Most of the guys I fight are going to have the game plan of holding me down, so I want to be the guy that’s very difficult to get down and hold down,” Stann told MMAJunkie.com. “For a guy like me, whose biggest asset is his knockout power, I can’t afford to fight these top-level wrestlers and spend the entire fight on my back.”
Stann expects to return to the octagon sometime this summer.