UFC Glasgow: Paul ‘Bearjew’ Craig Interview
It has been a few years since Paul Craig last fought on home soil but after suffering his first professional loss to Tyson Pedro back in March he knows this is something “Dreams are made of” but he also knows that he has to “work his ass off” to get back to winning ways and make his way up the rankings.
The fight camp for Tyson Pedro was tough on Craig, he “busted his Ass” and ultimately it wasn’t his night, he is not putting it down to things happening out with the cage, it was a simple case of “the guy beat me fair and square”
Even though Craig is coming into this fight off of a loss, things are a bit different, with the fight being in Glasgow the stress of being away from family and friends is away, there is no travelling or worrying about diet as all his meals will be “hometown” as he says, cooking himself and having less worries.
When a fighter suffers a loss, many will go back to the drawing board so to speak, some even as far as changing fight camps but for Craig it’s just a case of getting back into the gym every day and continuing the “hard work”
Another aspect of coming off of a loss, is to re watch the fight, breaking it down, analysing and seeing what mistakes were made. This is usually the coaches job or coach and fighter but for Paul, he knows where he went wrong
“I can tell you every single punch that was thrown, every single knee that was landed, when I judo hip threw him and he bounced back up. I can tell you all that, I don’t need to watch it, I know where I went wrong”
What’s next for Paul and how does he fix the mistakes made? Paul feels that to progress he must train to “beat Paul Craig” a simple way of saying that he knows what he needs to fix and in doing so, he plugs the holes in his game.
Craig seems set on what his next set of goals are but the one man standing in his was of achieving them is American striker Khalil Rountree. Craig knows Khalil won’t be a ”Slouch” when it comes to wrestling and he is a big, muscular fighter but with Craig being a brown belt in BJJ he won’t be a slouch in the grappling department either. Paul and his team have a pretty good idea what Khalil’s game plan will be and as Craig said “Everybody that has come up against Khalil knows how to beat Khalil” their counter is to move, hit and not to get settled.
Moving out of the way of a striker’s punches? sounds simple enough but game plans always look good on paper or in theory but It’s not until a fighter is actually in the Octagon and the bell has sounded for the first round that everything can change.
Both fighters have their strengths and their weaknesses, Khalil is the hard hitting striker with Paul being the high level BJJ fighter. Whoever gets their foot on the gas first and gets into a rhythm has a high chance of winning, the classic striker vs grappler match up that is sure to get the fans in the Hydro on their feet.
UFC Fight Night 113: Nelson vs Ponzinibbio come to Glasgow SSE Hydro on July 16th
Tickets Available here:
http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/UFC-Fight-Night-Glasgow-tickets/artist/2125935
