UFC 133 – Mike Pierce looking forward to facing another wrestler, wants to quickly progress his career

UFC welterweight prospect, Mike Pierce has been giving his thoughts on facing Johny Hendricks this weekend at UFC 133 in Philadelphia, explaining it’s always fun to face another wrestler in the spirit of competition… especially inside the octagon.
Speaking via UFC.com, Pierce said:

“Facing another wrestler is always fun. We kinda know each other’s game, we’ve been doing it since we were kids, and so it’s the other facets of the game that become a little more interesting. I see Johny Hendricks and me being an exciting fight. I don’t think this is gonna be a fight you’re gonna see ground out on the floor. I don’t see that happening. I see us being more on the feet, in the clinch, working in the open or maybe against the cage, but I think it’s gonna be more of a standup battle than anything, and I’m looking forward to that.”

“I want to hurry up because like (UFC President) Dana (White) says, your window of opportunity in this business is only so long. Nobody can do this forever unless you’re Randy Couture. (Laughs) Everybody’s got a finite amount of time in this business, so my goals are what they are and I’d like to get there as soon as possible. But at the same time I know I can only do it at a particular rate.”

“They sent me Jon Fitch in my second fight, which is a huge honor and not very common that they’d throw a newcomer one of the top contenders in the weight class. I think I handled myself pretty well. I did better than probably 99 percent of the people thought I would do, and I really only improved since that fight. So I think after this fight I’d really like to get a little deeper into the mix and work my way to the top. That’s really what I want to do.”

“There’s something about wrestlers. They have a mental toughness to them that’s just inherent to the sport. You’ve got so many levels of discipline – you have to maintain a particular weight, you’ve got to watch your diet and you’ve got to work out a lot, and learn different techniques – so I think the amount of discipline that’s involved in this sport by nature makes these people tougher if they really want to be serious about it.”

Pierce recently secured his third straight win inside the octagon, defeating Kenny Robertson in the first round via TKO at UFC 126 in February. The former WEC veteran is now 9-1 in his last ten fights which includes wins over Brock Larson, Julio Paulino and Amilcar Alves. His only loss came against Jon Fitch.