UFC Fight Night 27's Darren Elkins wants back in mix with home win vs. Hioki

Darren Elkins was on the cusp, and he knew it.

A five-fight win streak in the UFC’s featherweight division is no joke. Champ Jose Aldo has one, obviously. Cub Swanson has grown his streak to five. Other fighters are close.

But when Elkins stopped Antonio Carvalho in the first round at UFC 158 in March, albeit in a controversial TKO win, he was in some pretty rare company with five in a row. Looking for six against he toughest test yet, he took a short-notice fight just five weeks later against former title challenger Chad Mendes.

And that’s when things went off the rails. Mendes made quick work of stopping Elkins’ streak, stopping him just 68 seconds into the fight. Now Elkins (16-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) looks to go on a new streak starting Wednesday in his home state of Indiana when he meets Hatsu Hioki (26-6-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 27.

UFC Fight Night 27 takes place at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, less than three hours away from Elkins’ home base in Northwest Indiana, where his training partners include UFC welterweight Keith Wisniewski and Bellator vet Josh Shockley. Elkins and Hioki meet on the preliminary card on FOX Sports 2 ahead of the main card on FOX Sports 1.

“It took me a little while, getting over a loss like that (to Mendes), and being in a position that could’ve put me right there to be a top contender,” Elkins recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). “It was a huge opportunity. I took it, and I didn’t win that one. He capitalized on a mistake I made. I got over it, and now I’m just trying to get better again and take this fight and start another win streak. The last time I lost in the UFC, I lost to (Charles) Oliveira, and that’s when I went on my five-fight win streak. So I’m hoping to start another streak like that.”

Hioki is the latest stiff challenge for Elkins. After his streak hit five and he took the Mendes fight, the level of competition grew quickly – something he knew would happen. An Indiana state wrestling champion in high school, Elkins wants the tough tests.

Tough tests, and wins in those fights, lead to title shots eventually – something he wants to keep working toward even though he’ll have to climb the ladder again. In fact, winning that belt is more important than ultimately having fights with big dollar signs attached to them to Elkins, whose blue-collar style in the cage mimics his day job as a union pipefitter.

“I’m pretty excited about (Hioki),” he said. “(Fights against top-level guys is) what I wanted – that’s where you want to be at, to be at the top part of the weight class.

“My ultimate goal is to be a world champion. Money’s nice too. You add the temptation and the greed aspect in there. But I’d rather be world champion. You’re going to make good money if you become world champion. People are going to know who you are, and at least I’d know I’d accomplish something I set out to do. That’s more of a personal thing for me – hit the goals I set and accomplish them.”

Hioki has dropped back-to-back fights since turning down a shot to be next in line to face Aldo for the 145-pound title. Ricardo Lamas upset him in June 2012, and then he lost a controversial split decision to Clay Guida in January.

So he’ll be looking for a quick return to significance in the division, as well, against a highly regarded opponent. Elkins is ranked No. 9 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com MMA featherweight rankings. Hioki enters the fight as an Honorable Mention hoping to knock Elkins out of the Top 10 and supplant him there.

“You watch his fights, obviously, and the only way he’s really lost is by a decision,” Elkins said of Hioki, who has four of his six losses by split calls. “He doesn’t get finished. He can kind of hold on to you. I’m going to have to put the pressure on him and I can’t be comfortable no matter where the fight’s going. If it’s standing, I’m going to have to stay really busy and put on a show there. If we’re on the ground, I’ll have to stay busy and not make it a boring fight as much as I can. But hopefully it doesn’t come to that.”

Elkins will have the added pressure of what he hopes is a big pop from his home-state crowd when he opens up the prelims on FOX Sports 2. To go along with getting back into title contention at featherweight, he also wants to put on that aforementioned show.

“I’ve got a huge crowd coming down – teammates, family, I’m a (Union) Local 597 pipefitter, too, when I’m not fighting,” he said. “A lot of those guys are coming down, and it’s going to be a huge fight for me.”

With a win, he may find out quickly just how huge it was, as his fights against elite-level featherweights almost certainly will continue.

For more on UFC Fight Night 27, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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