Joe Lauzon is one of the UFC’s most exciting fighters, and he has the awards to prove it. With 12 FOTN, SOTN or KOTN bonuses to his name, only the great Anderson Silva has as many as Lauzon, but after two decision losses Lauzon is looking to get back on track on FOX this weekend.
After losing his last fight to Michael Johnson in his hometown, putting in a lackluster performance, Lauzon attributes the poor performance to fighting in front of a hometown crowd and not going through his usual fight week routine.
“I felt very flat,” Lauzon told the GrappleTalk podcast, “there’s a lot going on, it’s nice to fight at home because you get to sleep in your own bed and stuff like that, but there’s a lot of other stuff. I had so many friends and family there, people were getting hold to find out what time weigh-ins are, what time the fights start – it was pretty nuts…tons of local media, all that kind of stuff.”
“When we have a whole fight week it’s the same process…when I was fighting at home it wasn’t quite the same…I felt crappy when I went up, I felt slow and sluggish during the fight.” So would Lauzon be wary of fighting at home again? “It’s definitely something to be wary of,” he says. “Like I said it’s nice to fight at home but there’s a lot of downsides to everything to. I think if I fight at home again I’ll do it more like a normal fight trip, I’ll go and I’ll stay in the hotel and I’ll go through the motions.”
So, looking to rebound in this fight, Lauzon says that they switched things up in order to improve his performance: “We made a few changes to my training camp, I started working with Jimmy Quinlan more…everything’s went pretty smooth.”
When asked about fighting on FOX, Lauzon shows an acute understanding of his position on the card and the expectation on him to deliver on an exciting fight: “I’m super excited about it. Fighting on FOX is awesome. There only do so many fights on FOX a year and to be one of them is always a great honour. More importantly I’m in that first spot, the opening fight is super important. That’s what sets the tone for the entire night, that’s the fight that gets everyone excited…the rest of the fights follow that.”
Is he looking to add another finish to his record? Definitely: “I’m the biggest proponent of ‘don’t leave it to the judges’. If I’m dictating the fight, I’m always looking to finish.”
Hear the full interview with Joe Lauzon on tomorrow’s GrappleTalk podcast.
