Phil Hawes Reflects on Victory Over Kyle Daukaus, Looks Ahead to Deron Winn

“Megatron” overcame adversity to score a unanimous decision victory.

Phil Hawes (11-2, 3-0 UFC) had some rough times in his latest Octagon appearance at UFC on ESPN 24. Seconds into the second round, his opponent, Kyle Daukaus, went for a head kick and spinning back fist combination. While the kick missed the target, the fist landed and rocked Hawes, who immediately resorted to his wrestling, pushing Daukaus against the fencing. That minor adjustment allowed the Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight contender to ride out the storm en route to unanimously upend his foe on the judges’ scorecards.

“It’s just having that fight IQ,” he said while talking with Sherdog. “Making the right adjustments, not just… See, like, you said, ‘what was the game plan?’ If I did have a game plan, maybe I would have stuck to it, but I didn’t have a game plan. I was like, ‘I’m gonna fight, I’m gonna fight the fight, and I’m gonna make small adjustments.’ You’ve seen that adjustment, I got rocked [and] boom, I made an adjustment, and we kept going from there. It’s just about increasing the fight IQ and not trying to be set in stone.”

The Sanford MMA representative will ride a seven-fight winning streak into his next assignment, which will see him locking horns with Deron Winn during a UFC Fight Night that will go down on July 17.

“I don’t really watch my opponent’s fights too much, but I know he’s a tough wrestler, and I can’t wait to get in there and showcase my skills once again,” he said about his next fight. “I know he’s got [Daniel Cormier] in his corner, and I’m excited to perform.”

Tudor Leonte started writing about mixed martial arts in 2013 for Italian media outlets. His journey with Sherdog begun in 2018 and now he covers One Championship and countless European shows. You can follow him on Twitter @Tudor_leo.