LONDON – Jordan Vucenic’s mentality has made a giant shift.
Vucenic (13-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC), a former Cage Warriors champion, returns to the octagon this Saturday towards Chris Duncan on the principle card of UFC Struggle Night time 255 (ESPN+), which takes place at The O2 in London. This shall be his second struggle below the promotion, and he now feels as much as par with the opposite fellow UFC fighters, one thing he didn’t really feel debuting on brief discover again in August.
“I believe I put the UFC fighters on a pedestal,” Vucenic stated at Thursday’s UFC Struggle Night time 255 media day. “I form of seen them up right here, and I spotted that it’s not that they’re not up right here, it’s I’m not down right here, I’m up right here with them. I’m simply seeking to stage up on a regular basis and get higher and higher and higher, and yeah, I simply can’t wait to indicate it Saturday night time that I’m on that stage.”
Regardless of not having the appropriate mindset for his UFC debut, Vucenic did truly fairly properly. He didn’t take the win, however got here near placing away seasoned veteran Guram Kutateladze, as he dropped him within the first spherical, and appeared to be dominating the struggle. Issues finally took a flip, and Vucenic ended up shedding a choice.
“The loopy factor with the Guram struggle, all people is aware of how good of a striker he’s,” Vucenic stated. “I assumed that I used to be going to be profitable the struggle within the wrestling and the grappling, and that was a sport plan of like 8 days we needed to prepare for it. I truly thought he was taking part in possum within the standup, as a result of I assumed, ‘It will possibly’t be this simple. No approach it’s this simple to beat this man.’
“I’ve watched him for years, and he’s out hanging all people, so in my head I used to be like, ‘He’s taking part in possum. He’s letting me get my confidence up,’ however then I hit him with a shot and dropped him, and I used to be like, ‘OK, you don’t get dropped taking part in possum.’”
Preventing Duncan (12-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC), Vucenic feels assured in what he brings to the desk. Additionally, not preventing on brief discover, Vucenic feels free to pursue the end, one thing he felt constrained doing in his debut.
“If I harm him like I harm Guram within the first one, then there’s none of this, ‘Oh, I’ve to maintain myself recent. I would like to avoid wasting within the tank for the rounds,’” Vucenic stated. “I can simply get after him this time, so yeah, I’m prepared for 3 rounds of 100%.”
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