UFC welterweight all-rounder, Paulo Thiago has revealed that despite many people feeling he has a major advantage if his UFC 134 clash with David Mitchell goes to the ground he knows he’s going to have to be very careful as the American has shown in the past how dangerous he can be even off his back. Speaking via Tatame Magazine, Thiago said:
“For what we could tell by watching his videos, he has a regular striking, knows how to trade punches. For what we could get about his game, he’s not a great wrestler. He takes people down the way he can. Sometimes, when he can’t take them down, he pull them to his guard, but he has shown us in his videos that on the floor he’s a great fighter, both from the top and with his back against the floor. He knows many submission positions, sweeps, omoplata choke, gogoplata choke, which is a dangerous territory. He’s a fighter I can trade punches while standing up, but his greatest danger is the ground game.”
“We want to do a good start while standing up and, when we have to take it down, we’ll try to fell in a position on which I can dominate him, punch him and go for the submission. I’ll try to impose my rhythm in there, both on the ground and stand-up game. If I have the chance to take him down, I will.”
Thiago will be desperate to recapture the kind of form that saw him knock out former title contender, Josh Koscheck on his octagon debut after dropping back-to-back fights to Diego Sanchez and Martin Kampmann. As for Mitchell, he’ll also look to get back to winning ways after coming up short on his octagon debut back in September against Anthony Waldburger. Prior to that he’d racked up eleven straight wins including becoming the Tachi Palace Fights welterweight champion.By Michael Pepper.
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