After his impressive win at UFC Paris last weekend Farid Basharat already has his eyes on the biggest prize of them all. The Afghan is confident he has what it takes to defeat newly crowned bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley.
Basharat submitted Kleydson Rodrigues last weekend to secure the second win of his UFC career and improve his record to 11-0. He remains unranked but the 26 year old has a lot of ambition.
After the fight he declared that,
“If me and Sean O’Malley fight, I think I beat him.”
“I think, if me and Sean O'Malley fight, I think I beat him.”
Farid Basharat (@faridbofficial) knows he can compete with the best in the bantamweight division after picking up his first UFC finish.#UFCParis Results, Interviews & More ➡️: https://t.co/7czazBUvo8
— UFC News (@UFCNews) September 2, 2023
Different level
Standing in Basharat’s way are the 15 ranked bantamweights but not many of them are undefeated. As the old saying goes ‘style makes fights’ and the Afghan believes his would be difficult for O’Malley,
“Stylistically there are far worse fights (for me) in the bantamweight division then Sean O’Malley. If me and Sean O’Malley strike it’s 50/50 and on the grappling I don’t think it will be a competition.”
Basharat clearly feels his ground game is on a completely different level to O’Malley’s. While the American made made short work of Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 recently the Afghan is adamant he poses a far greater threat,
“You can’t tell me he goes out there and starches me. Stylistically that’s not how it works.”
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Submission skills
He got a chance to showcase his submission skills at UFC Paris last weekend. It took Basharat less than five minutes to make Rodrigues tap and he was delighted to finish a fight in the octagon for the first time,
“I’m feeling amazing, I’m on cloud nine. I pit a lot of work into this one and just prayed there are no hiccups (because) in this crazy sport anything can happen. I could have a bad night, he could have an incredible night so I really put the work in.”
Basharat grew up in London after arriving in England as a child refugee. But these days he is based in Las Vegas and said he put a lot of work into preparing for his sophomore UFC appearance,
“The whole summer I trained so hard. It was relief and pure joy, getting your first finish in the UFC, there’s nothing like it.”
Basharat is clearly not the leading candidate for a bantamweight title shot. But in this ‘crazy sport’ anything can happen and if O’Malley unexpectedly ends up needing an opponent the Afghan will be ready to throw his hat into the ring.
