“For sure,” Hiestand said. “I’ve come down to Vegas and trained with my team and we do a lot of cross training with some guys down here. I’m training with a lot of top-level bantamweights, a lot of guys at the highest level, and I’m seeing where I rank and I’m pretty happy with how I do against these guys. So, I’m making a plan to beat this guy, a really tough striker, beat another guy maybe, and then shoot for the Top 15 after that. And hopefully, I’m in after two fights, I can be in the Top 15, next the Top 10, Top Five and the championship in the next few years.”
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Not bad for the “new guy.”
“I have been doing this a big part of my life, but in the UFC, under an actual UFC fight night, I would say I’m somewhat of a new guy,” he laughs. “But I feel like that doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, it’s a fist fight and I’ve been in a bunch of fist fights. So April 22nd, it’s going to be the same thing; I’m going to go out there and beat this dude up.”