“If you do [have that emotion], you’re going to lose every single one of the fights. It would be the same kind of reoccurring thing. I can’t be looking to knock people’s heads off and then not be able to perform the way I want to do. Instead of looking for that one big shot, I need to go ahead and create the opportunities by throwing punches in bunches and just getting back to having that speed.”

Coming out of the loss against Rivera last year, Dodson was anxious to prove himself with his next fight when the call came in with an offer to face fast rising prospect Petr Yan in Prague.

The 26-year old Russian has been touted as one of the best young up and comers on the entire UFC roster while rattling off three straight wins inside the Octagon, including two TKO stoppages.

As much hype as there is surrounding Yan, he’s still largely unproven against top notch competition even though he just recently entered the top 15 rankings following his latest win.

Meanwhile, Dodson’s resume reads like a who’s who list of the best bantamweight and flyweight fighters in the world, so facing a dangerous prospect like Yan comes with a lot of risk and perhaps not as much reward.

That’s not the way Dodson is looking at this matchup, though, because as disappointed as he was with his last performance, he looks at this fight against Yan as a line in the sand to prove he can still hang with the top bantamweight fighters in the world.

“He doesn’t have a big number next to his name and the UFC is just trying to see what they’re going to do with me next. I’m going to sit there and remind them why I deserve to be here. I’m going to go out there and crush him every step of the way,” Dodson said.

“I messed up in my last fight. My last fight against Jimmie Rivera, that was my own doing, so they’re going to see if I’ve still got what it takes to knock somebody down again. I didn’t know there was hype around this guy. I just know he’s my next opponent and I have to lay my fist into his face.”