Sean Sharaf knew he had nothing to lose.
With an 0-2 record in the UFC, the 33-year-old veteran knew the stakes when he got the call to face Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson at UFC 331 this past Saturday night. Sharaf understood he was being brought in as cannon fodder for Steveson to get his second win in the UFC but that didn’t mean he had to just roll over and play dead.
“I think when your back’s against the wall and you’re on the chopping block at 0-2 [in the UFC] and you’re going against the hottest prospect in MMA history, you’re either going to take that leap of faith or you’re going to fail,” Sharaf told MMA Fighting. “I just completely surrendered to it.
“I was just like I believe in myself and whatever happens, I’m going to do it.”
Sharaf was the biggest underdog in UFC history, but the odds only gave him that much more courage to go out there and try to shock the world .. and that’s exactly what he did.
The fight barely started when Sharaf unloaded a massive left hook that blasted Steveson in the jaw and sent him crashing to the canvas in a heap. The entire fight lasted just 12 seconds and Sharaf had just pulled off the biggest upset in the UFC.
“The only thing I knew was put hands on this dude,” Sharaf said. “People give the wrestling too much respect. I wrestled in high school, don’t get me wrong, but if you’re scared of getting taken down, not only are you going to get taken down, but you’re going to be hesitant striking as well.
“That was the biggest thing. Get out there and get in his face!”
The strategy paid off with Sharaf getting the improbable knockout and that all came after he spent the entire fight week poking and prodding at Steveson with some verbal warfare.
While trash talk isn’t unusual leading up to a fight, Sharaf pulled no punches as he took a deep dive on Steveson’s past and decided to repeatedly call him a “rapist” in the days leading up to the fight. Steveson faced sexual assault allegations while he was at the University of Minnesota, and Sharaf had no problem using that as a weapon against him during fight week.
The charges against Steveson were eventually dropped, and he spent the majority of his first post-fight statement addressing the allegations, which told Sharaf he picked the right subject to go after his opponent during fight week.
“It’s called psychological warfare,” Sharaf said. “It’s not just physical. I’ve studied fighting for so long and Jon Jones has talked about it before., Psychological warfare is a thing. Everyone’s got mistakes, everyone has got a past, I’m not innocent. We’re all born sinners. But at the end of the day, I do think it got to him a little bit.”
There’s no telling how much the sexual assault allegations played a part in Steveson’s performance, but Sharaf got the knockout win either way.
After the fight was over, Sharaf was elated with the win and he wasted no time celebrating his performance. It also didn’t take long for Steveson to get up off the canvas and immediately leave the octagon rather than stay for the decision to get announced.
Veterans like Daniel Cormier took aim at Steveson for the decision to leave and go backstage rather than stay and offer a congratulations to Shraf on a job well done.
While he understands why Cormier and other fighters were upset by Steveson’s actions, Sharaf says he actually did get to share a moment with his opponent after the fight — but even if they never crossed paths again, he wasn’t upset at all about the entire ordeal.
“I don’t know if the cameras caught it, after I celebrated a little bit, took it all in, I saw him standing there before he walked out, I went him to him and shook his hand and shook Jon Jones’ hand,” Sharaf said. “We did shake hands, and when he left, everyone is saying he’s rage-quitting the game and that just makes it ever funnier. Like all right bro. I don’t really care.
“Stay in the cage, leave the cage, I’m getting my hand raised either way. No, if he stands there when I’m getting my hand raised or doesn’t, does nothing for me. I don’t care.”
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