Joe “Daddy” Stevenson: “I’m very confident.”

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Victorville’s Joe ‘Daddy’ Stevenson lost an interim Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight title shot to B.J. Penn last January, then was submitted by top lightweight contender Kenny Florian in November. Saturday, he faces a younger Diego Sanchez who also has lightweight title aspirations.

Must win? You think.

‘Every fight that’s put in front of a fighter is his most important fight,’ Stevenson told me Friday in a telephone conversation from London, where he’ll fight Sanchez in the main event of UFC 95 in London (Spike TV). ‘A loss takes you back, a win propels you forward.’

Clearly, a loss here would take Stevenson way back to also-ran status.

He’s trained like he knows it. After suffering a cut over an eye six weeks before his loss to Florian, Stevenson was deprived of critical preparation time.

Now, he says, ‘I’m very confident,’ after a training session in a secluded camp in the High Desert town of Phelan, where he trained with talented boxers including Antonio Diaz and wrestled with Kevin Randleman among others. The support of the High Desert community has also proved inspirational, Stevenson said.

‘This is the best camp I’ve ever had,’ Stevenson said. ‘My ultimate edge is my experience. I really like my chances.’

-- Lance Pugmire