Jared Vanderaa knows he’s fighting for his job at UFC Vegas 58 but says Chase Sherman is a very “winnable fight”

Jared Vanderaa knows he’s likely fighting for his job at UFC Vegas 58.

Vanderaa is on a three-fight losing streak and coming off a submission loss to Aleksei Oleinik. However, he has taken the majority of his fights on short notice and this is no different as he will take on Chase Sherman on two weeks’ notice.

“I know I asked for the fight and it came to be, I don’t know why. The only thing that comes to mind and this comes off a tad bit narcissistic is the card didn’t have a lot of people on it that fans knew of,” Vanderaa said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “I feel like Chase and I have somewhat of a fan base and honestly, I did think there were exciting fights on the card. Adding two big heavyweights it is exciting no matter what, especially stylistically as Chase and I are not grapplers. We are going to punch each other and we are strikers at heart.”

Although this is a short-notice fight, Vanderaa says he actually thought he would fight around this date six weeks ago, so he began a training camp then. With that, he doesn’t view this as a short-notice fight at all as he began getting in shape and sharpening his skills.

“Some weird reason I have like a sixth sense. Maybe six, seven weeks ago, I told my girl and I had a feeling that someone will pull out between Alan Baudot and Josh Parisian or I will fight around then,” Vanderaa said. “I said I was going to be ready to accept a fight around that date and started getting ready. So, I have been training pretty consistently, pretty hard for the last five, six weeks because I thought I would step in and the week of their fight I got the call to fight Chase.”

Entering the fight, Jared Vanderaa is well-aware that he is fighting for his job given his losing skid. However, he says he can’t focus on that as all he cares about is winning the fight.

“I mean, it would be stupid of me to not know that (the loser probably gets cut). It’s one of those things it’s the reality of the sport that if I lose there is a likelihood of me getting cut,” Vanderaa said. “But, how about instead of worrying about the downside, I think this is a winnable fight and we go on the last fight of my contract and win that fight and get renewed for a third contract.”

Ultimately, Vanderaa is confident he will get his hand raised as he expects to mix in the wrestling and striking to throw off Sherman and get his hand raised that way.

“A piece of me is wondering if Chase is going to try and wrestle me because he is at Sanford and they are a wrestling heavy gym. I hope he tries to wrestle me and I have been working on my ground game,” Vanderaa concluded. “That is something I am hoping for but if not I have been working on my striking. Just keep him guessing. If I take him down once he might think about it and that doubt will take me a lot further. That is the game plan going into that fight.”

Do you think Jared Vanderaa will beat Chase Sherman at UFC Vegas 58?