UFC welterweight Lorenz Larkin feels like he wasn't under much pressure going into UFC 202. He served as a late replacement, taking on Neil Magny, and managed to pick up a very nice TKO win. In fact, he thoroughly dominated the fight. What is most interesting is that the Magny bout was the last one on his contract - he is now a free agent.
When speaking to the media after his win last night, he talked about the lack of pressure on him (video via Submission Radio):
"I’m not saying this just because I won. Going into the fight, I had no pressure on me. It was a last-minute fight, I was halfway in shape, and I just had to have a little mock camp to get myself fully prepared. I felt he had more pressure on him than I did. I’m not known. I’m not ranked. He’s the number seven guy, it would be bad for me to come in there and beat him."
He also seemed quite open to exploring all of his options in free agency:
"I think I made a pretty big statement. I’m not even ranked. I couldn’t tell you, even if there were rankings from 1 to 50, I couldn’t tell you where I was at. So, I think it just shows a lot. I took the fight on short notice, and I finished him in the first round. I don’t feel like it was a lucky shot. I think it was a fight from the get to, sticking to the gameplan and it showed where I was at in the division.
"I’m excited to see how everything goes, how everything plays out. I’m just curious to see whoever is going to point me in the right direction and is going to market me, and build me as a fighter. And I’m just going to sit with my team and my management, and go from there."
Larkin (18-5, 1 NC, 5-5 UFC) has won two in a row, and four out of his last five overall. It'll be interesting to see what kind of offers he gets from other promotions now that he's able to speak to them.