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Lauzon admits he's not as strong as Warburton

ESPN staff
June 23, 2011
Joe Lauzon's legs gave up on him in his last outing, when he was submitted by George Sotiropoulos © Getty Images
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Joe Lauzon has confessed he will be trying to get Curt Warburton beaten early at UFC Live, because he loses a battle of strength with the Brit.

Lauzon is attempting to bounce back from defeat to George Sotiropoulos in Pittsburgh, taking on an opponent in Warburton who lost his UFC debut to Spencer Fisher, before making amends in a points win over Maciej Jewtuszko.

Lauzon has won a bonus cheque in five of his last six bouts, winning Fight of the Night on three occasions. However, he has no interest in the extra money against Warburton, realising he could get outmuscled by the Wolf's Lair fighter.

"I think he's tough," said Lauzon on the official UFC website. "He's very comfortable in the clinch and he looks like he's got that wiry, tendon, wrestler-strength. I feel like he's not necessarily gonna move me around, but slow me down, and that can be tough to deal with sometimes.

"Even though I don't look that strong, I feel much stronger than I look, but I might not have that advantage this time around. So we're working on trying to be quick, beating him to the punch, and all that kinda stuff.

"Back and forth fights are good, but the way that I impress the people the most is when I put on a fight like the [Gabe] Ruediger fight," said Lauzon, who defeated Ruediger in two minutes. "If I go out there and blast through people, people are gonna remember and enjoy the fight.

"I don't want people to see that he's good. I don't want the fight to go his way whatsoever the entire time. The people who didn't know him before, I don't want them to know him after the fight either, because Fight of the Night may be nice, but that means it's back and forth and it's a super tough fight. I don't want that. I want to control and dominate."

Reflecting on the Sotiropoulos loss, when Lauzon was submitted via kimura in the second round, he admits his body just gave up on him.

"I thought that was my best fight boxing-wise," he said. "I honestly felt like I couldn't miss during the fight and I thought I showed some good improvement there. I paced myself pretty good in the first round as well, and I don't think that the pace that I pushed was what really did me in," said Lauzon. "I felt good at the end of the first round and in between rounds I felt okay.

"I went to step off the stool and my legs felt like concrete. Then I knew I was in trouble. Everything we had been doing was working on the jab and beating him to the punch, and those things rely on me moving my feet and getting in and out and moving around the ring. So I knew I couldn't keep that same gameplan and it was definitely not a good feeling at all."

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