“It’s really because you’ve got no f***ing choice,” Kattar said. “You can cry and moan about it, be a victim, but that usually, in my opinion, leads to more of a negative slope. It’s all about just picking myself up, moving forward in everything, and this fight is no different. It’s kind of unfortunate where you parlay that last fight off the fight before, but, at the end of the day, those things are going to be driving my recovery and my eventual return.”
For a constant workhorse like Kattar, sitting back and watching everyone else in the division compete isn’t an easy task. The featherweight division has a lot of movement up top with champion Alexander Volkanovski going for double-champ status against lightweight champion Islam Makhachev at UFC 284 next month.
“It’s tough to talk s***, (Volkanovski) is out there and wants to fight the competitors,” Kattar said. “He is one of the champions that I actually really respect, because I feel like a lot of these guys like to sit back and wait for the right time and get cute for when they fight. He is just a real competitor, a busy champion, which keeps the division moving, which is good for us contenders. I wish him the best of luck in that fight with Islam when he bumps up. Hopefully he can get that double-champ status. I think he deserves it.”
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That same night, Yair Rodriguez and Josh Emmett will battle it out for the interim featherweight title. But as he sits back for 2023 and watches the movement happen within the division, Kattar will remain true to himself, not really caring about who is fighting who or when, simply because he knows his time will come.
“They’re all in the same bucket, and I’m fishing out of that bucket,” Kattar said. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m not really focused on any one of them, and when I step across from any one of them, it’s going to be to earn that eventual title shot that I think I deserve.”