For Song Yadong life has changed a lot in the last few years. He has moved to the US with his family and purchased a house in Sacramento where Team Alpha Male is based.
The 23 year old caught the eye of Dana White after his decision win over Casey Kenney at UFC 265 last weekend. The promotion’s head honcho clearly feels the Chinese bantamweight has a bright future,
“This kids only 23, how good do you think he’s going to be when he’s 27? He’s super talented.”
"I felt like I got every round."@SongYaDongMMA was surprised to hear a split decision read from the judges, but was happy with his performance overall at #UFC265 🔉⬆️
All #UFC265 Results ⤵️:
— UFC News (@UFCNews) August 8, 2021
Blunt reply
While Yadong used a translator in the immediate aftermath of the fight he was happy to answer questions in English during the press conference. He has suggested in the buildup to the fight that he would utilize his grappling but rolled back on these comments afterwards,
“I feel like I had the advantage standing up, I am a standup fighter. My original style is sanshou.”
When pressed about why he had promised to grapple with Kenny he replied with some blunt honesty,
“Everybody’s lying, nobody says the truth!”
#UFC265 Official Fight Result: @SongYaDongMMA (29-28, 30-27) defeats Casey Kenney by Split Decision.
All #UFC265 results and highlights ⤵️:
— UFC News (@UFCNews) August 8, 2021
Surprising scorecard
He was also surprised to hear that one of the judges had scored the fight for his opponent,
“I feel like I got every round, maybe some of them (my advantage) was not that significant but I feel like I got every round.”
One of the judges scored the contest 30-27 for Yadong who feels that this was the correct reading of the fight,
“I saw that I won all the three rounds, he did nothing. I did better.”
While he was surprised about that scorecard Yadong says the American didn’t bring anything unexpected to the table,
“There is one thing that surprised me, he was too slow.”
Family man
Coming off his first ever loss inside the octagon at UFC 259 he admits to feeling more pressure during this training camp. As a result Yadong says he needs a break from training and fighting,
“This camp was more pressure (so) I need to spend time with my son and my family. I don’t want to think about fights.”
Despite being one of the youngest fighters on the UFC roster he is already a family man. A spot in the top 15 probably awaits but Yadong says he isn’t interested in talking about potential opponents right now.
In fact the 23 year old says the best part about his experience in Houston was being able to win in front of his family,
“I feel very excited and my wife and my son are here. That’s the most important (thing) for me.”
