Elgin MMA fighter Aidan Stephen wants to do his talking in the arena when he takes on Irishman Paul Hughes in a Cage Warriors featherweight bout later this month.
Stephen, who has three wins and one loss to his name in Cage Warriors so far, will take on undefeated Hughes at Manchester BEC Arena on September 26.
Hughes has emerged as a talented young prospect with five wins to his name since starting his professional career with a KO win over Adam Gustab in 2017.
Although Stephen is aware of pre-fight noise coming from his opponent’s camp, he is determined to have the final say when the pair meet on what will be the third successive night of action in the Cage Warriors’ trilogy event.
Stephen said: “He has already started the big trash talk – saying he’s going to smash William Wallace and all that kind of stuff. He’s into that, he likes trying to get into the opponent’s head and everything. I just ignore all that and leave my talking to actually being in the cage.
“At the end of the day we’ve got to fight each other anyway, so there’s no point.
“I like the whole idea of respecting your opponent. It would be a different story in football if they started calling each other names before every game.
“It doesn’t look good for anyone looking into the sport from the outside.
“There’s no need to be disrespecting each other, we are all trying to achieve the same goal. We are all working hard.”
Stephen’s last fight was at the same venue in March when he defeated Englishman Jack Collins within 90 seconds only days before the country was placed into lockdown due to coronavirus.
Despite the pandemic having denied Stephen access to the SBG Moray gym facility where he trains, he is relaxed about his preparation for his bout against Hughes.
He added: “When I got asked if I could take this fight, I was obviously thinking I haven’t had the best training possible, but neither has anyone.
“England and Ireland got to open their gyms about a month earlier, but I was still training hard. It’s not like I’m at a major disadvantage.
“My aim was to have three fights this year, so I’m still on target for that despite Covid.”
Stephen feels he is approaching prime condition and plans to taper his preparation.
He added: “It’s normally two weeks out from the fight when you peak.
“You keep fit for those two weeks and just make sure you are not going into the fight with any injuries.
“The next week or so will be mega-hard work and then I will just start toning it down just to get ready for the fight.
“All my hard work has really been done up until this point, though. I started eight weeks out and now we are three weeks out.”
