Following UFC Fight Night 27 win, Darren Elkins wants top-10 wins and title shot

UFC featherweight Darren Elkins knows that several top-tier featherweights are booked, but as long as he gets a top-10 opponent, he’ll be satisfied. 

“I think I’ll need a top-10 guy, maybe one or two of them, and then I’ll be in the (title) talk,” Elkins (17-3 MMA, 7-2 UFC) told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). 

The 29-year-old fighter might still be rebuilding momentum after his decision over Hatsu Hioki (26-7-2 MMA, 2-3 UFC) at Wednesday’s UFC Fight Night 27, but according to rankings, he’s still one of the best 145-pound fighters in the world. He currently stands at No. 5 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com MMA featherweight rankings, and could climb further after this week. 

Elkins, who trains out of Duneland Vale Tudo in Northwest Indiana, dropped from lightweight to featherweight in 2011 and reeled off five straight wins to earn his spot on best-of lists. Then he took a short-notice fight against onetime title challenger Chad Mendes at UFC on FOX 7 and wound up losing by first-round TKO. 

Given what it cost him in stature, you’d think he’d reject any offers that came with less than ideal time to prepare. But Elkins said that as long as there’s opportunity attached to fights, he’ll continue to take them. 

“That was a circumstance (with Mendes) that I didn’t have a full camp, but man, the reward was going to be so great if I won that one,” he said. “So I’d like to say, ‘I won’t be doing any more of those,’ but I can’t say no. Those fights come up, and sometimes, you’re a fighter, and if they call you to do a job, you’ve got to do a job. 

“Hopefully, I get a full camp, and that’s the expectation. But sometimes, it doesn’t always work that way.”

Elkins won two of three rounds on the judges’ scorecards at this week’s event, which took place at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. His fight aired live on FOX Sports 2. 

Normally after a big win, Elkins said he might ask for an opponent such as Dustin Poirer or Erik Koch to give him the final push toward a shot at champ Jose Aldo. As it turns out, though, the standout featherweights are booked to fight each other on Saturday at UFC 164. 

But maybe Elkins doesn’t have to wait that long, after all. He could fight the winner.

“If they don’t give me somebody like them, that’s understandable, because everybody’s tied up,” Elkins said. “I’m hoping it’s going to be a tough fight that puts me in the picture.”

“The Damage” said he also could fight Ricardo Lamas when the fighter recovers from an injury. Although they’ve trained together, Elkins takes the stance that he’ll accept any fight that gets him closer to the belt. 

“I don’t train with a whole lot of people,” he said. “I’ve trained with Lamas a little bit, but we don’t train on a regular basis. If we’ve got to fight, I’ll do what I have to do.”

Although he doesn’t carry the star power of some of his peers at featherweight and lightweight, Elkins has cultivated a reputation for pulling out all the stops when he competes in the cage. Against Hioki, he survived a body shot that badly hurt him in the first and then wiggled out of submission danger in the second. 

He’s hopeful that such performances keep him in conversation when big fights are discussed. 

“If you watched that fight, there were a lot of fast-paced scrambles for position,” Elkins said. “We didn’t just sit and lay-and-pray. It was an action-packed round the whole time we were on the ground.” 

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 27, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

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