{"id":485608,"date":"2026-06-19T15:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/485608\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T15:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:28:13","slug":"ufc-navajo-stirling-set-for-biggest-test-of-career-to-date-with-ion-cutelaba-match-up-on-the-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/485608\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC: Navajo Stirling set for biggest test of career to date with Ion Cutelaba match-up \u2013 On The Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe other guys I\u2019ve fought were prospects like I am now, just new guys. But this guy\u2019s obviously a tried-and-tested UFC fighter.<\/a> He\u2019s fought the guys in the top 15, he\u2019s beaten guys in the top 15, so I would consider him someone that\u2019s legit that\u2019s obviously seen all the best guys, he\u2019s seen it all.\u201d <\/p>\n

The 28-year-old Stirling has looked a step above his first four opponents in the UFC,<\/a> with some convincing wins on the scorecard before getting a breakthrough stoppage in his most recent assignment against Bruno Lopes.<\/a> <\/p>\n

After the win, Stirling called out Cutelaba, and the Moldovan, who holds a 20-11 professional record with a draw and a no-contest, responded positively via social media soon after. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt just made sense to call him out because I knew I\u2019d get a date straight away. And I did. It was just smart thinking on my behalf. That\u2019s what I do, man. I just keep an eye out on the division. I try to see what fights make sense. He\u2019s on a tear right now and so am I. This is the fight to get me to the next tier of UFC light heavyweights,\u201d Stirling said. <\/p>\n

Stirling has tried to call people out since joining the UFC in 2024 but until now has gotten little traction. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually hoping someone would call me out, man, or someone speak ill about me … I\u2019m trying to kick some drama off, to be honest,\u201d Stirling said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really travel overseas so I don\u2019t really butt heads with any different fighters. There\u2019s no real backstories I can really build other than me just picking fights online or something like that. The guys I\u2019ve called out so far haven\u2019t done too well in the UFC, so those fights don\u2019t really make sense. I mean, as for this one, this guy I called out and he said, \u2018let\u2019s do it\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cutelaba comes into the bout after a first-round submission win over another promising prospect, Oumar Sy, and in 20 professional wins, he has 17 by stoppage. <\/p>\n

With fellow City Kickboxing fighter Carlos Ulberg the current champion of the UFC light heavyweight division, Stirling was in no hurry to get into title contention. However, a win over Cutelaba would unlock the next level of opponent for him. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe rankings don\u2019t mean much to me. My time will come and I just want to fight,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to fight so I can get paid. Top 15 or not, doesn\u2019t matter. I\u2019ll fight and win. I\u2019m not really scared about giving up my opportunity to get there because I don\u2019t plan on losing and I don\u2019t see anyone that\u2019s going to beat me outside of the top 15. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no rush for me. Carlos is the champion right now and I definitely wouldn\u2019t want to fight him.\u201d <\/p>\n

Christopher Reive<\/a> joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe other guys I\u2019ve fought were prospects like I am now, just new guys. But this guy\u2019s obviously…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6326,2046,243687,29804,22218,5071,2082,50218,36329,29368,6804,236799,186779,111,139,69,1118,90,1562,36095,44625,1551,213,81988,243688,765,223,61,4306,243689,810,102,377,6730],"class_list":["post-485608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-biggest","tag-career","tag-cutelaba","tag-date","tag-division","tag-feature","tag-for","tag-heavyweight","tag-ideal","tag-ion","tag-light","tag-matchup","tag-navajo","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-on","tag-plenty","tag-plot","tag-points","tag-set","tag-sports","tag-stirling","tag-stirlings","tag-test","tag-the","tag-to","tag-ufc","tag-ufcs","tag-up","tag-with","tag-world","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}