UFC Welterweight Max Griffin says he was very excited, when he received the offer to fight Alex Oliveira at this weekend’s UFC 248.
Since beating Mike Perry back in 2018, Griffin has been looking to get matched up against some big names. He admits that the offers didn’t excite him too much, but on Saturday against ‘Cowboy’ Oliveira that is a different story.
“I was fu*kig pumped. My last couple of fights, like Zelim [Imadaev], [Alex] Morono, I wasn’t excited for them,” Max Griffin said in an interview with BJPENN.com. “I want to fight the big names and when I got the Oliveira fight, I was pumped, ecstatic. Starting dancing, I’m excited man. It is big, I’m pumped.”
Going into the fight, Oliveira is riding a 3-fight losing streak. This fight might determine if the Brazilian stays with the company. Griffin realises this and thinks that it will only make Oliveira more dangerous.
“Totally he is going to come out there and try to kill me. I want to engage and he’s a fun guy and wild. I know it is a fight people are looking forward to,” he said. “He was supposed to fight Mickey Gall and they scrapped that fight so we could fight.”
Max Griffin remains confident that he’ll get his hand raised, even though pundits have him as the underdog. He feels that he has the better skillset between the two, and outlines the fact that in 2019 he was tied for 2nd most takedowns in the UFC. That’s something he didn’t even know, until the UFC let him know just a couple of weeks ago.
He also mentioned the improvements in his cardio and he plans to use all his weapons to beat Alex Oliveira and make him quit.
“We are going to bring it, but I’m going to finish him, I’m going to make him quit. He’s tough, he will get dropped and get back up. But, I’ll make him quit, and I’m taking his soul. My takedown success rate is high. I’m going to strike, wrestle, ground and pound. Just a high pace and I’m going to finish him, I don’t have a choice,” he explained. “The way these judges have been scoring fights, I can’t go to the scorecards. I like the guy, not talking trash, but this is what I will do.”
Clearly Oliveria’s team know that this is a tough fight for them. Griffin revealed that their team were not keen to take the fight, as their fighter is on a 3-fight losing streak and understand that this may end Oliveira’s UFC career.
“This fight almost didn’t happen. I said f**k yeah when I got the offer and his side didn’t want it and they took two weeks to accept the fight because they know I’m a tough guy,” he said.
In the end, Max Griffin remains confident that he’ll get his hand raised on Saturday. He believes that a win against Oliveira will be a great stepping stone to getting a high profile fight next.
“Even though he has lost a few he is still a big name. I want to beat him and then onto the next. This kind of guy who wants to fight,” Griffin concluded. “He’s going to bring it and that’s why they set this up. This is what I want, I want to fight known guys.”
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 5th March, 2020.
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