AJ Dobson expects a “three-round war” against Armen Petrosyan at UFC 280: “I’ll surprise him with my speed”

AJ Dobson knew he needed to get healthy before he took another fight.

Dobson earned his way into the UFC with a win over Hashem Arkhagha by submission on the Contender Series. In his UFC debut, he suffered a decision loss to Jacob Malkoun but he wishes he never took the fight. Dobson explained that he was fighting injured in his last three outings as he needed knee surgery to fix a torn meniscus, a surgery which he finally got after the loss to Malkoun.

“Honestly, that one hurt but the biggest thing was I was really injured going into that one. In my last three fights, I had a really bad meniscus tear,” Dobson said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “What I learned from that was I’m human and I’m at the UFC level and every fight I need to make sure I’m as close to 100 percent as possible and if I need surgery I need to do it now just push it back.”

When Dobson makes the walk to the Octagon at UFC 280, he will do so against Armen Petrosyan who’s 1-1 in the UFC.

Dobson is expecting the fight to be a very fun one as he knows they are both very good strikers. With that, he expects it to be a three-round war but also is confident his speed will play a massive role.

“He has really good muay Thai, is a muay Thai champion,” Dobson said. “Our grappling kind of negates each other, and on the standup, and sure he’s more complete but I’m faster and more explosive,” Dobson said. “If I play my game I can edge out the standup… I think it’ll be a three-round war or I will catch him early. You never know, a fight is a fight but I do think a three-round war or I’ll surprise him with my speed.”

If AJ Dobson gets his hand raised he says that will prove that all the hard work was worth it and will solidify him as a legit UFC fighter.

“It’ll feel so good after all this hard work and years of consistent training. It will solidify that I am doing the right thing,” Dobson said.

Do you think AJ Dobson will beat Armen Petrosyan at UFC 280?