Max Griffin was excited when he got the contract offer to fight Alex Oliveira, at UFC 248.
Griffin has been looking to fight big names since he defeated Mike Perry back in 2018. Since then, he admits the matchups haven’t excited him that much, but on Saturday against ‘Cowboy’ Oliveira that is a different story.
“I was f*****g pumped. My last couple of fights, like Zelim [Imadaev], [Alex] Morono, I wasn’t excited for them,” Max Griffin said to BJPENN.com. “I want to fight the big names and when I got the Oliveira fight, I was pumped, ecstatic. Starting dancing, I’m excited man. It is big, I’m pumped.”
Entering this fight, Oliveira is on a three-fight losing streak and might be fighting for his job. So, Griffin knows that will only make Cowboy more dangerous in this scrap.
“Totally he is going to come out there and try to kill me. I want to engage and he’s a fun guy and wild. I know it is a fight people are looking forward to,” he said. “He was supposed to fight Mickey Gall and they scrapped that fight so we could fight.”
In this fight, Max Griffin is confident he’ll get his hand raised despite being the underdog. He knows he has the better skillset as in 2019 he was tied for second in takedowns in the UFC, something he didn’t even realize until the UFC told him that a couple of weeks ago.
He also knows his cardio is much improved so he plans on using all his weapons to beat Alex Oliveira and make him quit.
“We are going to bring it, but I’m going to finish him, I’m going to make him quit. He’s tough, he will get dropped and get back up. But, I’ll make him quit, and I’m taking his soul. My takedown success rate is high. I’m going to strike, wrestle, ground and pound. Just a high pace and I’m going to finish him, I don’t have a choice,” he explained. “The way these judges have been scoring fights, I can’t go to the scorecards. I like the guy, not talking trash, but this is what I will do.”
Griffin also says that Oliveria’s side knows this is a tough fight as well. He revealed their team didn’t want to take the fight as they are on a three-fight losing streak and know this may be the end of Cowboy’s UFC career.
“This fight almost didn’t happen. I said f**k yeah when I got the offer and his side didn’t want it and they took two weeks to accept the fight because they know I’m a tough guy,” he said.
In the end, Max Griffin remains certain he’ll get his hand raised where he believes a win will set him up nicely to fight another big name after this.
“Even though he has lost a few he is still a big name. I want to beat him and then onto the next. This kind of guy who wants to fight,” Griffin concluded. “He’s going to bring it and that’s why they set this up. This is what I want, I want to fight known guys.”
Do you think Max Griffin will be able to finish Alex Oliveira and take his soul at UFC 248 as he says?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 3/4/2020.