Billy Goff (9-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) is looking to go 2-0 in the Octagon when he meets Trey Waters (8-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) for his sophomore UFC appearance at UFC St. Louis on Saturday, May 11.

Goff finished Shimon Smotritsky on the Contender Series and rode that momentum into a TKO win over Yusaku Kinoshita in his UFC debut last August.

Waters, meanwhile, inked a UFC deal after his LFA win over Jalin Fuller and then defeated Josh Quinlan via unanimous decision in his Octagon debut.

Goff acknowledged Waters’ advantages in height and reach: He’s 6 feet 5 inches with a 77-inch reach compared to Goff, who is 5 feet 10 inches with a 72.5-inch reach.

“He’s a tall, lanky guy,” Goff said of Waters. “He’s a good boxer who quickly transitions to jiu-jitsu, so I can’t just walk in and grapple or anything. He’s always in the fight. He’s had a couple of late-fight finishes to come back. He’s never fully out of it. I believe I’m better, and I believe I have the skills to get past the disadvantage in height and reach. I’m shooting for the first-round finish, but I’m always prepared for 15 minutes of hell.”

Waters had similar advantages in his win over Quinlan. Goff said his takeaway from Waters vs. Quinlan is that Waters does not fight as fast as he does.

“He fights at the same pace as most of his fights,” Goff said. “He tries to slow everything down. I don’t think he’s going to have the cardio to fight at the pace I fight at. He’s going to have a hard time slowing it down, because I’m not going to let off the gas.”

Goff said his plan is to make Waters work and let his cardio take over if need be.

“It’s easy to do all the things you want to do when you’re nice and fresh. But when you start sucking wind, it gets harder to defend things or react as quickly.”

In a match-up between two welterweight prospects, the winner could establish himself as a man to watch at 170. Goff said the stakes of the bout are the same as when he fought Kinoshita.

“This is just like the last fight and every other fight I’ve had,” he said. “I try to treat every fight like the most important fight I’ll have. At any point, it’s make or break. You never know when the most important time to show up is.”

Goff’s goals for 2024 are to go 3-0. He isn’t expecting to break into the top 15 this year and said he isn’t in a huge rush to do so, either.

“I’m just trying to catch some good momentum and get a good following, so when I do make my run to the top 15 and for a title, I’m getting paid a lot,” he said.

Goff said he is shooting for the first-round finish over Waters.

“I definitely see it going my way. However, I’m always prepared for 15 minutes of getting my sh– kicked in.”

UFC St. Louis is set to go down from the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

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