Move up to light heavyweight pays big dividends for TUF 24 Finale winner Devin Clark

LAS VEGAS – Devin Clark may not have gotten the knockout he was hoping for, but after a rough outing in his UFC debut this past summer, a win is a win is a win.

Clark was knocked out by Alex Nicholson in July at UFC Fight Night 91 in front of his home city fans in Sioux Falls, S.D. But he took a little of the sting of that memory away on Saturday.

Clark (7-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) cruised to a unanimous decision over Josh Stansbury (8-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC) to open up the TUF 24 Finale at The Pearl at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Their fight streamed on UFC Fight Pass ahead of the rest of the card on FS1.

“I thought I could knock him out, but I guess that wasn’t the case,” Clark told MMAjunkie after the fight. “We traded heavy shots and it was a lot of fun.

“It feels good to get that first win out of the way. It’s not quite how I wanted to win, but I’ll take it. It was a good battle. He’s just a tough guy. He came out there to fight, and that’s what he did. I know he’s a hard-working, humble guy. It’s tough to take those guys out.”

Working in Clark’s advantage this time around was a move from middleweight to light heavyweight. Not having to cut those extra 20 pounds, Clark said, paid a big dividend on Saturday.

The Jackson-Wink MMA-trained fighter said going from a walking weight of 230 pounds to 205, not surprisingly, is preferable to 230 down to 185.

“I always work my cardio hard,” he said. “Last time, I cut a lot of weight. That was at 185 pounds. This was at 205, so I came in a lot bigger and probably a little more healthy without that extra weight cut. I think that might’ve been the difference. It feels good. I stay right at 230 pounds. I’m not a little dude for the division by any means. I just disguise it in my legs, but it feels great to be at 205.”

Clark said he’ll be hoping to make a return quickly, but also remains cognizant that he’ll also be wanting to continue to improve ahead of his third fight int he promotion.

“I’ll fight whoever. The better the opponent, the better it’ll make me train, and I know I’ll perform,” he said. “I’ve got some work to do, but that work’s going to be put in and I’ll come back bigger, stronger and faster.”

For more from Clark after his win over Stansbury, check out the video above.

And for complete coverage of The Ultimate Fighter 24 Finale, check out the UFC Events section of the site.