On September 23, 2006, at UFC 63, Joe Lauzon shocked the world (and especially venerable MMA star Jens Pulver) by knocking the former lightweight champion out in Lauzon's Octagon debut. A stint on The Ultimate Fighter Season 5 followed and Lauzon quickly became a cult favorite among hardcore UFC fans. Lauzon is one of the sport's most exciting fighters and there are metrics to prove it. In seven UFC fights, Lauzon has won a post fight bonus in five of them.
Joe was kind enough to stop in before his fight with Terry Etim at UFC 118 (a fight to be shown live on SPIKE TV) to take your questions.
49er16 : How do you plan to defend against Etim’s Muay Thai?
Joe Lauzon: When you talk about a Thai clinch, there's a lot of things you can do. Thai wise, you can strike him back and there's a lot of things you can do wrestling wise. It's tough to defend against both, so I think I'm going to use a combination of both. A combination of defending knees, attacking with my own knees, looking for takedowns. Whenever you talk about throwing knees or throwing kicks, you're always running the risk of a takedown. I think that's going to be a pretty big weapon for me. It's going to be the key to the fight, all the way around.
esquilinho : How has Abmar Barbosa improved your BJJ? Following up: Do you think he will kill you if you let Etim up off of the ground?
Joe Lauzon: Abmar is a man. This question is coming because he said 'I'll fucking kill you if you let him up off the ground.' Once you get him down, Abmar is adamant about making him pay. Once you get him down it's about making him pay a price, not giving him a free pass. If you get him on the ground, you have to finish him. That's what he believes. So we're working on just tightening up everything. My control posture for ground and pound, setting up my strikes, and making sure I'm sharp in catching submissions. Abmar is awesome.
Plus, Terry is about 6-1 and Abmar is 6-2. So Abmar is studying his game and doing a lot of the things that Terry likes to do. So I'm preparing for an even better Terry Etim, because I'm sure Abmar has way better Jiu Jitsu. Abmar is a beast on the ground, so I think we'll do well there.
Jonathan Snowden: How important is it for you to have somebody mimic your opponent like that? As opposed to a generic training partner just drilling technique.
Joe Lauzon: We do this every single fight, whether it's my fight or someone else's. We try to matchup guys bodywise, then we match them up skillwise, then we take it further by having them go for the same things. If I'm fighting a wrestler, we'll have someone learn to shoot a takedown the same why they do and drill for that. Get the best wrestler we can, around that size, and have them shoot the same takedowns.
I'm not saying my guys who are mimicking will be able to do it at the exact same level as Terry. Obviously that's not their game; they're copying Terry's game. But you know, it still gives you a cool look, and it's a great indicator for how the fight is going to go.
Much more with Joe Lauzon after the jump.
ElliotMatheny: Etim is arguably a more dangerous striker than Stout, at least when it comes to delivering singular damaging blows; how will that play into your game? Are volume striking and combinations more daunting for you than someone who consistently delivers knockout power?
Joe Lauzon: I think both are dangerous at different times. If my defense is good and I'm dealing with the kicks, then volume isn't as big a deal. And, whenever someone is coming forward, they are opening themselves up for takedowns. The thing about Stout, he's always coming forward, but he has great takedown defense. Terry has good takedown defense but while he has good volume with his strikes, I don't think he gets up as well as Stout.They're both very similar fighters, just a different flavor. I think they're each a little bit better at different things, and it's going to make a big difference in the fight.
ElliotMatheny: Also, Etim’s only losses have come at the hands of strong grapplers dominating from top position, so will that be the game you try to impose on him?
Joe Lauzon: For me, that's the recipe for every single fight. I'm always going to take people down and dominate on the ground. Because that's also his weakness, I think it's going to help me. The downside to that is he has fought a lot of good grapplers. And I know Terry is real smart, he's a very smart fighter. I'm sure he's gone back and really worked to improve. I'm not going to be able to beat him the way other guys have beaten him. He's worked on things for sure and I'm sure he's tightened up his game. It's good I'm from that style, so I can try to take advantage of those holes. But it's going to be difficult for sure.
majuca8 : How important is it to you to fight on the first UFC event in Boston, and how are you planning on dealing with the pressure of being a hometown favorite?
Joe Lauzon: It's great to be able to fight back here. I've had like thirty-something fights and I'd say probably 20 of them have been in Massachusetts. But it's been four or fiver years now since I've been able to fight here. Between fighting in the UFC and doing all these other things. So, I couldn't wait for them to come to Boston. It'll be great to fight in front of my hometown. There's a lot of guys from Massachusetts in the UFC now, but I'm the one who came up the most from the bottom level here.
Marcus Davis had a ton of boxing experience, but only a few MMA fights here. He jumped up pretty quick. Kenny (Florian) had a few fights around here, but I had a lot of fights here. It's kind of cool. The boxing commission, all the martial arts schools here, they've watched me grow up. I started fighting when I was 18. They've watched me go from my first amateur fight, which you can find on YouTube, which is terrible. I went from this kid who was pretty good at Jiu Jitsu and sucked at everything else to someone fighting at a pretty high level. So, this is like a graduation of sorts, I guess. I'm coming back and it's going to be awesome.
Jonathan Snowden: The UFC has always been a west coast promotion, between California and Las Vegas. Now, they're looking to make a mark back east. Is there the fanbase for MMA in the northeast that you just haven't been able to tap into yet?
Joe Lauzon: There's an unbelievable fanbase here and a ton of good fighters that come out of here. It's such a small state, but there are a lot of fighters here. There's a smaller show every weekend, sometimes a couple of shows every weekend. There are so many shows for such a small state. The UFC could have come for a long time and they've been wanting to. And they're doing the Fan Expo here. They wouldn't be doing the Fan Expo if they didn't think they'd have a crazy amount of support.
Jonathan Snowden: I went to the last Fan Expo and thought it was a great event. I was amazed at how great the fighters were with the fans. Why do you think there is such a tight connection with the fans, the kind you don't see with athletes from other sports?
Joe Lauzon: I think the fighters appreciate the fans, but you're only as good as your last fight. You can win four or five in a row, but when you lose one all of the sudden it's 'Oh, so and so sucks. He's overrated.' But when people still want to come and see you despite a loss, that's when you appreciate the fans. MMA fans can be very very fickle. And when you lose they have a lot to say. Kind of like Monday morning quarterbacking. And it's tough sometimes. You're beating yourself up already, thinking about how you could have done better and you've got all these people telling you "You suck' on top of it. When you have fans that still want to see you, you really appreciate that.
It's not like a football player where they are fans of the team so they kind of have to be your fan. They are individually choosing to be your fan. And that's kind of awesome.
Jonathan Snowden: It's the internet and everyone loves the drama, so...
Beer Monster: I’ll start with the obvious one – Are you and your brother on speaking terms right now? Do you think you’ll be able to mend fences and work together MMA-wise in the future?
Joe Lauzon: I really don't want to get into it that much. I will say, once I took myself out of the role of trainer, we're getting along much, much better. Just as brothers.
Jonathan Snowden: I didn't see how you did it. I love my brother, but if we had to work together I'm not sure it would last four hours, let alone four years.
Joe Lauzon: That's the thing. I'm super hard on myself and I expect even more from my brother. There's your professional life and your family life. For us professionally, it wasn't a good fit.
Gideon Jay: How much did your jiu jitsu improve while training with BJ Penn? Does he still call you Creepy Joe?
Joe Lauzon: Every time I trained with B.J. I was always picking up something. Every through him teaching me something or just watching how he did things. I learned more about controlling people's hips and got so much better. I learned so much about passing guard and defending off my back.
One of the biggest things is that I learned how to train myself. I was so used to everyone training together. With B.J. it was all about him. Every single drill they did, every single training partner. It wasn't about making sure everybody was getting a good workout. Everything was focused around getting him the best work possible and making it an ideal situation. So, now when I train, the other guys are getting good work too, but really I take priority. I take the five or six guys I'm going to use for the day and really focus on me. It changes the way you train really. A lot of different drills they did, I brought home. He's the man. I just wanted to pick his mind.
Jonathan Snowden: It almost sounds like the way boxer bring in sparring partners as opposed to MMA fighters, who have traditionally had "training" partners. There's a difference and a different economics involved to. Has it come to that in MMA, where you are going to have to pay guys to come work with you?
Joe Lauzon: There's guys that you bring in, but it usually isn't about paying them. Maybe you'd fly them in and give them money for food for the week. Something like that. But you don't have to pay someone a whole bunch of money to come in for the week. Because honestly, when guys come in they're going to benefit too. They're going to get good rounds in with me and on top of that they'll get to roll with all my guys. When you travel to a new camp, a new gym, you always pick up things. It's not at the point yet where I have to pay guys for each round they do with me.
Jonathan Snowden: When you were with B.J. did you work at all with Tony DeSouza? Because he's had the reputation for a long time for being a really sharp guy on the ground.
Joe Lauzon: Tony is awesome. Actually, I lived with Tony. I stayed at the fighter's house that is right around the corner from B.J's so I was there with Tony and hung out with him a lot. He's an interesting individual. Tony is a man, you know? I learned from him too. He had a great wrestling background so he was super helpful to me because I'm not a traditional Jiu Jitsu guy off his back. I like to work from the top and Tony helped me a lot with some little wrestling things and getting on top and staying there. About takedown that work for Jiu Jitsu and being safe. It was great to find someone so tactical at Jiu Jitsu, but with a strong wrestling background.
Jonathan Snowden: Now we'll have to delve deep into controversy. Your nickname. I don't think I could possible convey how much the fans hate it.
Joe Lauzon: I hate it too.
BlueberryMuffin: "Why do you keep the nick "J-lau" when you recieve so much flack for it? And why don`t you use Creepy Joe Lauzon instead?"
Joe Lauzon: I don't like that "Creepy Joe" one. I don't like J-Lau, but I'm not going to trade it for another terrible one. You don't get to pick your own nickname. A couple of guys that I train with and have know since high school-they're the ones who started the "J-Lau" thing. I can't get away from it.
Jonathan Snowden: How would you change it? Put out a press release?
Joe Lauzon: It's been so long now. That's how people know me. Not everyone is an expert and could say 'Oh, he changed his nickname, you can't call him that anymore.' They know me as "J-Lau" so it's still going to be "J-Lau" to them. I'm stuck with it. I agree it's terrible. Whatever.
Jonathan Snowden: We have several questions about what is still probably your most memorable fight, your UFC debut against Jens Pulver.
Snedds : Hey Joe, how heavy did you celebrate after beating Jens Pulver?
Jonathan Snowden: It must have been such a huge moment in your life.
Joe Lauzon: It didn't hit me what I had done until after awhile. We had worked so hard. After the fight I was pumped, but I didn't understand exactly what I had done. It like a week for it to hit me. I was in such shock. We didn't really do a lot that night. I went down to the basement where the locker rooms were and found all my friends and family. I hung out with them. We went to some kind of after party but we all stood around saying 'I can't believe you just did that.' And I'd say 'I can't believe I just did that.' We were all in shock.
Suffocate : How did you initially feel being asked to join the cast of the Ultimate Fighter, instead building off the Pulver win?
Joe Lauzon: I had heard Jens was going to be a coach, because I was on The Underground all the time. I had heard he and B.J. were going to be the coaches. So, I knew they were looking for Jens to knock me out then go on to fight B.J. after the show. Obviously there was this hype with B.J. being B.J. and Jens being the reigning champ from way back. I knew all this going into the fight. Then I knocked out Jens.
I was in a van going from the venue back to the hotel with Dana White, Joe Silva, my parents and my coaches. They asked me straight up 'Have you heard anything about The Ultimate Fighter?' And I said 'I don't know. Maybe?' Kind of playing dumb. They told me 'Jens is going to be a coach and we want you on the show. We think it's going to be great.'
I was kind of shying away from it. I had already fought in the UFC and I had a win. Why go back down to that show? It's great attention, great publicity, great to get the fans so interested in you. And they really do get more interested in you. They don't just see you when you fight. They watch you over the course of 12 weeks and get to see who you are. I still didn't want to do it. I had just graduated from college and I had a good job, a full time job. I was happy to train, work, and fight, everything at once.
I tried to talk them into taking my brother and at first it seemed like it might work. But SPIKE TV doesn't let on people under 21. He was 18 at the time and couldn't take him. I started thinking about it again and I didn't want to pass up such a great opportunity. If I had, I'd be kicking myself now. I'm glad I did the show.
clrkaitken: What was it like being on The Ultimate Fighter with Jens Pulver after you knocked him out in your UFC debut? Did you and Jens talk much about that fight?
Joe Lauzon: It wasn't the first time I had seen him. We sat together for like 40 minutes waiting on the press conference and I hung out with him a little after the show. He was real cool and friendly. Then I saw him at the show and I went up to him and gave him a hug. He told me I had ruined all his plans, but it was O.K. But then it got awkward when B.J. said 'Who wants nothing to do with Jens Pulver and only wants to be on my team?' And I raised my hand. Not because I had anything against him, but I came on the show to train with B.J. That was a big selling point for me.
Jonathan Snowden: That was a unique moment on the show. We hadn't seen a coach really do anything like that before. Or really, since. He just put everyone on the spot, in a way that must have created so much tension, even more than we saw on T.V.
Joe Lauzon: It was a hundred times worse and you can't understand unless you were actually standing there. No one knew. And B.J. put everyone on the spot and ten of us put up our hands. Now you're like 'Oh shit,' because B.J. can only take eight. So the whole thing was kind of a mess.
Jonathan Snowden: Especially knowing Jens and what a genuinely nice guy he is. It sucked to see, because his feelings were obviously hurt.
Joe Lauzon: Yeah, and Jens is super emotional anyway. And B.J. made people say 'I want nothing to do with him.' It was pretty awkward. It was an interesting psychological ploy by B.J. though.
Jonathan Snowden: There are a lot of what I can only describe as "nerd" questions. I don't think Brock Lesnar would get these questions. Only Joe Lauzon.
troy145: What is your favorite Pokemon?
Joe Lauzon: Favorite Pokemon. I have no idea. I used to play this stupid Pokemon game on my Game Boy or something.
Jonathan Snowden: You said it once I'll bet and it stuck.
Joe Lauzon: That was a long ass time ago. I'll go with Charizard.
Jonathan Snowden: The fire breathing lizard. See, I know that too. No need to be embarrassed.
RearNakedChoker: What’s your XBL gamer tag so I can roll you up in Undisputed 10? :P
Jonathan Snowden: Others want to know if you are on XBox or the PS3?
Joe Lauzon: I play on X Box and I don't give out my gamer tag. I think what I'm going to do is get a second X Box Live account and give out that one to people. And here's why: now I have a bunch of guys I play with from my gym. The guys at my gym are my friends, the guys I hang out with. We'll go to Six Flags and hang out. On X Box it's the same thing. There's like 10 guys I play with all the time. My friends list is full and everything else. And if I give out my gamer tag, X Box Live is so bad about this, there will be so many stupid messages about 'so and so wants to be your friend,' 'so and so sent you a message' that I just delete things from anyone I don't know. So I'd just be deleting people anyway.
I don't want people sending me messages I'm not going to read. If fans are going to take the time to send me something, I want to make sure I read it. They should send it to my Twitter, send it to my Facebook, things like that. I don't want to upset people, but that's what they have to do.
Jonathan Snowden: Note to fans: it's nothing personal against you. But the man has to live his life.
Joe Lauzon: When I'm playing X Box, I'm zoning out. There's nothing more distracting than all these little messages popping up in the right hand corner from people. If people want to get me messages, there's way better ways than when I'm playing a video game. Send me messages on Twitter or Facebook. That's a way better medium than when I'm trying to kill terrorists.
Dr. Doogie Seacrest: Has your show cop show with Miguel Torres been green lit?
Joe Lauzon: (Laughs). That would be awesome. I think Miguel is so hilarious. He posts the best things on Twitter. There's only a couple of people that show up on my homepage. I have everyone else split up on different lists. But Miguel goes right up on top. He's freaking hilarious.
Jonathan Snowden: Love him or hate him, he's kind of raised the bar on Twitter hasn't he? Before you were on the top of the list. He's taken it to another level. I'm just challenging you to take it up a notch.
Joe Lauzon: Oh definitely. For a little bit I was tweeting like crazy and I got a lot of messages complaining 'Oh, you're filling up my homepage.' so I kind of backed up a little. But I'm thinking about picking it up. I have a fight coming up and I think when you have a fight coming up people are more interested in what's going on with you.
Jonathan Snowden: For sure.
Joe Lauzon: So, I'm trying to ease up a bit when I don't have a fight, but when I do, I try to give people a bigger volume of stuff. I'll try and match his level of craziness. We'll see.
WestbergIDFC: Do you regularly read MMA blogs and forums?
Joe Lauzon: The Underground. It's the best site in MMA. MMA.tv, or mixedmartialarts.com. They have a forum on there and it's the best forum. It's a balance between high level posters, trolls, and fighters. I post over there, Shane Carwin is very active over there, Dana White posts sometimes. It's kind of a go-to site for the fighters. I think it's the best forum.
AniMal34: Have you ever deliberately fought someone with a finish not being the main objective?
Jonathan Snowden: That doesn't seem like you style, but I'll let you answer the questions.
Joe Lauzon: I'm always looking for a finish. I think I was a little bit delusional at the beginning of my career, thinking I could submit anyone. Then I trained with guys like B.J. and realized that might not happen. (laughs). But I'm always looking to finish guys. That's the gameplan. I always joke 'You don't get paid by the round, you get paid by the fight.' I think sometimes trying to put on an exciting fight and finish people has cost me. In the Sam Stout fight, if I would have taken my time in his half guard, beaten him up a little, set up my submission better. There are times it's cost me, being so aggressive, but it's the way I'm always going to fight. When I watch fights I love the guys that are always going for submissions. I can appreciate guys setting things up and picking someone apart, but if you're picking someone apart the end goal should be a finish. You shouldn't be picking him apart to make him look bad for three rounds to a decision. If I'm picking someone apart, it's because I'm setting up a takedown or a submission. Other than that, I'm not one to play it safe. I want to finish, every single time.
Jonathan Snowden: Speaking of finishes...
Gi_choke: Why don't you try more flying subs like you did against Jeremy Stephens. FLYING SUBS ROCK!!
kyfm621: What is one finish you’ve always wanted in a fight? Gogoplata? Flying arm bar? One punch KO? Triple Decker Pecker Wrecker?
Joe Lauzon: Anything flying is cool. I've gone for the flying submissions several times, still haven't finished one. I'd love to finish with a flying heel hook. I'm very good at all of those. Not so much the flying Gogoplata. (Laughs). Flying triangles, flying armbars, flying heel hooks. The Imanari leg scissors. There's all kinds of cool submission I'm really good at. If I see an opening for any one of those, I'm definitely going for it. But those are moves you don't want to force. Because you'll always end up on the bottom if you miss. I don't know if Terry would follow me to the ground anyways. So it's almost like a free pass.
Jonathan Snowden: This is your chance for that Rumina Sato moment.
Joe Lauzon: Sato was one of my favorite guys to watch. He is probably to blame for me being so reckless with submissions. I used to watch his highlight reels all day long. I learned so many things just from watching highlight videos. Crazy, low percentage, off the wall moves. But he'd just go for it. And that's influenced what I do so much. That guy never had a boring fight. Maybe he didn't win every fight, but he was always worth watching. He might not submit someone, but the possibility is always there. It's like a Chuck Liddell fight. He's got all that power in his right hand and the knockout can come anytime. So, you watch.
Jonathan Snowden: And people remember him. It's been years since he had a significant win, but people remember all those moments. Is that what it's about for you at the end of the day?
Joe Lauzon: Definitely. I wouldn't say I'm trying to leave a legacy, and I don't have any delusions of grandeur with that kind of stuff. But someone like Jon Fitch, who has a lot of wins by decision, he's an incredible fighter, one of the best in the UFC. But it's not as memorable when you win decisions. People remember the finish. We were talking about the Pulver fight being so memorable. That's because the finish was so unpredictable. People assumed either I would submit Jens or he would more likely knockout me out. I flipped everything around and had this unpredictable knockout-and that's what people remember. People remember my fights.
Beer Monster: If the WEC was a financially viable option, or if the UFC absorbed the featherweight division, do you think you could make 145? And would you like to fight in that division?
Jonathan Snowden: Are you willing to sign up for the diet they just volunteered you for?
Joe Lauzon: The diet is tough. But a lot of it is that I have a big frame. I don't look very strong upper body wise, but I carry a lot of weight in my legs and my shoulders are wide. I'm lanky, but not as lanky as someone like Cole Miller who can make 145....I think 145 takes too much out of me. Right now I'm at 175 or so. So getting that weight down to 165, 160 and then cutting to 145-I think it's too much. I'm going to stick to 155.
Jonathan Snowden: This fits in nicely with the weight cutting question.
PlantingaFan: How many In-n-Out burgers can you eat in one sitting? After the fight with Stout, it looks like you were eating about thirty of ’em.
Joe Lauzon: After the Sam Stout fight I was starving. I wasn't walking that well because he kicked me in the leg what felt like 250 times, so I just had one of my guys go out and get like 30 burgers. I think I ate three "double doubles" and a whole bunch of fries. I was feeling like death afterwards and probably shouldn't have eaten so much. Normally I eat two "double doubles." I did three and it was a terrible idea.
Jonathan Snowden: Let's talk about one time you did make that 145 limit.
Beer Monster: In your fight with Ivan Menjivar (an awesome fight, BTW), you got caught in a calf slicer, a relatively rare finish in MMA. Do you chalk that up to inexperience at the time (having only been a pro for a year and a half), or is Ivan really that good?
Joe Lauzon: I was in way over my head in that fight. That was at 145 and I cut a ton of weight. The first time I cut weight really. But I had this opportunity to go to Canada, go international. It was only a six hour drive, but it was a big change of pace from fighting locally. We took the fight. It was at 145, but we figured we could make it. But I hadn't cut to 145 ever. It was also the first time I ever fought with elbows. It was a whole bunch of firsts. First time fighting out of the country, first time fighting at 145, first time fighting with elbows, first time cutting weight. It really wasn't the brightest move on my part.
Right off the bat I go for double underhooks and he plants an elbow across my jaw. (Laughs). Dropped me to my knees. I started falling back. He jumped on me for the finish, but I jumped right back up and tried to take him down. It was kind of good, because it was the first time I had really been rocked like that, the first time I'd ever been out on my feet, and it was good to see that my natural instinct was to come forward and attack as opposed to cover up and run away.
I ended up on my butt and went for a heel hook. It seemed like I was going to get it but then he was punching me in the head. Which didn't help me at all. I let go of his legs and he caught me. He got one hook in and was trying to take my back. I was like 'no you're not.' I had both my hands, trying to keep him from getting that other hook in and the next thing I know, he sits out and puts me in a calf slicer. We're shoulder to shoulder, but we're facing opposite directions. His leg is in the middle of my knees. Think of my knee as a door. He took his leg, like a piece of wood in the door hinge, and then he slammed the door. It tore the meniscus in my knee pretty bad. I could see my shin bending and I could feel my knee coming apart. And I tapped.
It was super, super slick. Ivan Manjivar was a bad ass. It almost felt like a win, just doing so well. We got a lot of things out of the way. Fighting with knees and elbows. I wasn't ready for that. I was thinking, 'Oh this is going so well.' And then, crack, right across the face. It was a good fight for me to grow up and I gained a ton of experience.
Jonathan Snowden: Last question, about two guys you know very well...
LBo: Also, who've you got for Kenny Florian vs. Gray Maynard?
Joe Lauzon: That's an interesting fight. Gray is a ridiculously good wrestler. He pretty much broke my ankle when he shot a double leg on me on the show (The Ultimate Fighter, where the two were teammates). I could hardly even walk. Luckily I was one of the last guys to fight in the first round. I was taping up my ankle every day because I could hardly walk on it. I was hiding it, icing it when no one was around, stuff like that. So, Gray's a sick wrestler. He's got heavy hands and he's an absolute workhorse.
Gray's way stronger than Kenny. And Kenny is used to guys fading a little bit. Guys that start off strong and kind of lose their stength over time. I'm never seen someone who cools off as hard as Gray. When he was on the show he would start out with a 45 minute run and would be hitting mitts for five fives (five minute rounds). A workout before hand. I'd be tired just watching him before his fight. When Gray fought on The Ultimate Fighter 5 Finale and he lost to Robert Emerson-as he was taking Emerson down he hit his head and kind of knocked himself out a little. Emerson was hurt, but they gave the win to Emerson. (Editor's Note: This fight was actually ruled a no contest). Gray was furious in the back room. Even after his fight he hit the mitts for 40 minutes. Just releasing energy. Gray's just an unbelievable workhorse.
Kenny's kind of used to guys who get tired a little bit, guys who slow down. I felt like when I fought Kenny in the beginning I was way stronger than him. But as time went on, his strength stayed the same while mine dropped off. I think he kind of waits a little bit for that. So it's going to be interesting to see. Because Gray is not going to slow down.
Gray has the way better wrestling. Kenny has the better Jiu Jitsu. Gray's super, super tough on the ground, grinding you into the fence. I can't wait to see the fight. I thought Gomi was going to cause a lot of trouble for Kenny and Kenny just made him look dumb. Picked him apart, did anything he wanted. I don't know who's going to win the fight and I can't wait to watch it.
Joe Lauzon fights Terry Etim August 28th on SPIKE TV. Friend him on Facebook and be sure to check out his Twitter which should start blowing up any minute. Jonathan Snowden is the author of Total MMA: Inside Ultimate Fighting and The MMA Encylopedia, in stores this winter.