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Sport Nation
FWC on Sport Nation guide'I starve my distractions and feed my focus': Rising star Stirling eyes statement UFC win
Stephen Foote • June 19th, 2026 11:36 am
Navajo Stirling | Photo: Photosport
As Carlos Ulberg sits newly anointed as the king of the UFC light heavyweight division, his teammate and compatriot Navajo Stirling is making plenty of waves of his own.
Stirling, 28, is out to extend his flawless start to his tenure with the world's premier MMA organisation this weekend, when he squares off with rugged veteran Ion Cutelaba in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas.
The Upper Hutt-product and two-time King in the Ring champion is undefeated through his first four bouts on the UFC stage, and the lights become that much brighter against the Moldovan.
He enters the bout on the back of his first finish, having put Bruno Lopes away in the second round in Seattle back in March.
Three months later, Stirling is eager to keep that fast-track momentum going without compromising his own development, with the wise heads at City Kickboxing ensuring he strikes that delicate balance between progress and ambition.
And of course, he only has to look across the mats to see proof of concept of that very approach.
"I credit a lot of my success to just the insights that I've been given from, obviously, Israel [Adesanya], Carlos [Ulberg], Eugene [Bareman] and just being able to place my trust in their process that they went through," Stirling told Sport Nation.
Navajo Stirling | Photo: Photosport
"I literally watched Carlos go through a six-year run to the bout. He'd come into the UFC a lot. So, there's no real rush for me.
"Because I'm so good at dealing with the outside noise, injuries and I'm always looking after myself. It's just given me a chance to fight often, train often and not be pulled out of the game. Time on the mats is just unmatched."
While Stirling admits he typically prefers his management and coaches to take care of the matchmaking, it was his call-out of Cutelaba during his post-fight interview after his most recent win over Lopes which resulted in Sunday's bout.
Stirling says he saw an opportunity against a dangerous opponent on a similar timeline, with name value and shot his shot.
Cutelaba - who's won three of his last four fights and exposed some divisional prospects - willingly obliged.
"I saw that he had a first-round finish a couple of weeks prior to my finish so I called him out then and there, and I knew he would be game to take it," he explained.
"He's a veteran. He's definitely like a guy that's out there fraud-checking all the young guns. So I knew if I was the one to get through him, it would kind of surface me above the rest of the prospects in the division.
"I'm just going to do my talking with the way I perform and I see myself blowing through this guy."
Stirlng's supreme confidence suggests the result will be a mere formality, but it's far from merely bravado-based.
Navajo Stirling on his healthy competition with fellow UFC light heavyweight Carlos Ulberg | Fight Club podcast
There's no shortage of hype surrounding Stirling as the next championship-calibre fighter to emerge from Auckland's renowned combat factory, but it's the focus to tune all of that pressure out and dial into the immediate which he believes sets him up to deliver on that potential.
It's that kind of energy which distinguishes him from the fighter across the Octagon.
"I see a lot of fighters, they come in and now they've got all these different distractions. I starve my distractions and feed my focus.
"I've locked everything in on fighting. My whole life outside of the gym is all built towards making sure that I'm going to be ready to fight and my mind is always sharp.
"I come across these guys and they just don't know what they want out of themselves and I know I'm just going to run through them every time because I never had to second guess myself.
"Every time I step in that Octagon, they feel the energy that I bring.
"People make fun of the way I look or the way I fight or say this and that, but then when I get in front of you and I'm hitting you in the face, everything becomes way different."
Listen to the full interview below:
