On how he's approaching Saturday’s fight: “We've never seen him be stopped. I assume he's got a really good chin. I've seen him take some good punches including some really hard overhands from my teammate Koscheck, who hits really hard with that right hand. We assume he's got a really tough chin. I assume he's going to be tough to submit. He's a jiu-jitsu black belt, a multiple-time champ. So I assume he's overall a very tough and hard-to-finish guy.”
“Paulo Thiago's an exciting fight to prepare for. This is my first jiu-jitsu black belt to prepare for in the UFC. It poses a lot of different elements for the fight. I feel challenged in different ways than previous opponents. I'm super excited to get out there and mix it up with Paulo.”
The last thing two wrestlers typically like to do in a mixed-style fight is wrestle: their advantage negated, their gas tanks run dry -- and quickly -- in the clinch and while jockeying for position. They resort to trading, and the best boxer-in-the-wrestler tends to win.
Neither Couture nor Coleman will be confused for kickboxers anytime soon: their three-round main event Saturday may come down to who gets tired first and eats the majority of combinations they’re too fatigued to avoid.
Is Couture’s fight frequency a factor?
While fighters generally sit on their hands, fighting only two or three times per year, Couture has hit the pedal on his remaining time in the cage: this will be his third fight in five months, with two having gone the full fifteen minutes.
In his last three fights, Nate Marquardt has shown a killer instinct he wasn’t thought to have. He finished all three bouts and he attributes those wins to a different mindset.
“Going into the fights, I’m looking for the finish (now),” Marquardt told Sherdog’s Mike Sloan in this exclusive video interview. “I’m looking to hurt my opponent.”
Check out the video to hear Marquardt’s thoughts on his matchup against Chael Sonnen on Saturday at UFC 109.
