Former Cage Warriors Lightweight Champion, Stevie “Braveheart” Ray has signed with the UFC.
Ray who has been rallying to join the UFC since his last victory at Cage Warriors over Curt Warburton will make his debut in just two weeks’ time at UFC Krakow.
Ray will step in to replace Jason Staggo and take on Polish fighter Marcin Bandel on the undercard of the show.
Bandel is looking to rebound from his last fight which saw him stopped in the first round against Mairbek Taisumov in Bandel’s UFC debut.
Following his signing with the UFC, Ray had this to say;
“This means the world to me. It’s been my main goal ever since I started training in MMA, so now I’ve reached it, the new goal is to get some wins and to start climbing those ranks and work my way to the top. I like to be the best at everything I do, so I’ll be working towards that every day.”
Tony’s Thought’s:
Very pleased for Stevie Ray who has definitely proved his worth in making it to the UFC. Ray is a fighter who continues to evolve and gets better every time he is in the cage which he showed in his last fight against Warburton in November.
My only concern ahead of his UFC debut is the timescales. He is taking on a fight with only two weeks’ notice which is always a tough ask. Although, the chance to fight for the UFC doesn’t come around all that often so I totally understand why Ray is taking this shot.
If Ray is able to get his weight down quickly and use these next two weeks to just focus on the fight then there is absolutely no reason why he won’t be getting his hand raised on 11th April.