Matsumoto still felt undefeated<\/a>, but thinks he will only be able to truly move on from that close defeat if he gets to face the veteran bantamweight a second time.<\/p>\nBack in the win column following a split decision win over Miles Johns, Matsumoto re-enters the cage Saturday to take on Farid Basharat at UFC Vegas 113 and is looking for a win good enough to convince UFC matchmakers to give him another opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cRob Font already has a fight booked but I\u2019ll always insist on this,\u201d Matsumoto told MMA Fighting. \u201cHe was the only guy who managed to defeat me inside the octagon, so as long as he\u2019s in the top 15, that\u2019s a fight I want. If he drops out of the top 15, I\u2019m not that interested, but while he\u2019s there, I\u2019ll keep pushing to fight him. He\u2019s set to fight Raul Rosas now, they re-booked it. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to happen, but if it doesn\u2019t, or if he wins and stays in the top 15, I\u2019d like to fight him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Font lost to David Martinez in his only match since the Matsumoto fight and now faces Rosas at UFC 326. The numbered event goes down March 7 in Las Vegas, and Matsumoto expects his past nemesis to leave the cage with another defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Raul Rosas is going to mess up his game a bit because of his grappling,\u201d Matsumoto said. \u201cI personally felt more comfortable in the grappling exchanges with him. Raul Rosas does that very well, so I believe it\u2019s going to complicate things for Font. But [Font] is dangerous on the feet too, right? Raul Rosas has some deficits in the striking, so it should be a fun fight to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the setback, the young Brazilian said spending 15 minutes inside the octagon against a man that has faced former champions in Jose Aldo, Cody Garbrandt, and Deiveson Figueiredo was a big lesson learned.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an important year for me,\u201d Matsumoto said. \u201cUnfortunately I had my first loss came on paper, but I realized that I\u2019m at the level to be on the top shelf, to break into the top 15 and even the top 10. That was something I had a lot of doubts about before because I hadn\u2019t faced anyone from there yet. So for me it was really positive, even coming out with a loss. I learned a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy last fight I ended up holding back a little bit, maybe because of the fear of losing my contract or something like that,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a perfect performance, but it is what it is. And thank God I came out with the win. That\u2019s what matters. I learned that in the Rob Font fight. I thought I won but that doesn\u2019t really matter much, so what matters is leaving with your hand raised.\u201d<\/p>\n
No longer feeling under pressure to win and keep his job, Matsumoto vows to deliver and entertain in a \u201cwar\u201d against \u201ca very well-rounded\u201d Basharat to have a name next to his number among the elite of the bantamweight class.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this last win gives me some room to breath and allows me to be more relaxed,\u201d Matsumoto said. \u201cI believe I need to go out there and put on a show for the fans. Not have a boring fight, right? We know the UFC doesn\u2019t like that. I\u2019m going in there to put on a show, to trade punches, and if God willing, secure another win. Do what I know how to do without fear of winning or losing. Just go in there and give everything I have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jean Matsumoto can name at least one ranked fighter he\u2019d love to fight. Despite losing a split decision…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-463566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}