Maurice Greene is excited to welcome Gian Villante to the heavyweight division on the main card of UFC on ESPN 12 this Saturday night.
Greene enters this fight on a two-fight losing streak where last time out, he was submitted by Alexey Oleynik. Although some think it is a must-win for Greene to remain in the UFC, he isn’t thinking about that.
“Every fight is important to win but being on a two-fight skid, yeah this is crucial,” Greene said to BJPENN.com. “I don’t worry about it being do-or-die for my career, I just control what I can control, like being in shape and ready to fight. Just giving the fans at home some good sports and action.”
For Greene, when he got the fight offer he was excited. Although the two have never trained together, he says he has met Villante a couple of times. His brother, Ed, and Villante played college football together.
So, the two know each other, but for the TUF 28 contestant, he says that has no impact on the fight.
“He played college football with my brother for a couple of years so I know he will be a big boy. He played linebacker and my brother, Ed, played defensive tackle at Hofstra,” he explained. “I’ve met him but this is my job and somebody has to get f****d up. But, yeah I like any matchup they give me, I just want to fight.”
Ahead of the fight, Greene also decided to leave his longtime gym of Factory X and go to Albuquerque to train at JacksonWink. Why “The Crochet Boss” decided to do that was simple.
“I live in Minnesota still but I just need bigger bodies, I needed heavyweights. Factory X has world-class fighters and trainers but I just needed heavyweights and be able to train with bigger bodies,” he said. “We have a staple of heavyweights here at JacksonWink. Marc Montoya is a hell of a coach but JacksonWink may be the end game. We will see. But, I like it here and I like the weather, especially to get the fuck out of the snow.”
Maurice Greene says the move to JacksonWink could very well be permanent, depending on how this fight goes. But, he is confident in his skill set that he will be able to finish the fight.
“I believe I will fight the best Gian Villante there has been. If he isn’t, that’s on him, not me. We will see who falls first or if I will get a decision. But, he may have to wrestle,” he said. “He is going to have to wrestle unless he wants to get knocked the f****d out. If he doesn’t wrestle, he’s going to get knocked the f**k out.”
Ultimately, Maurice Greene is confident he’ll leave Las Vegas on a winning note and work his way up to fight ranked fighters once again.
Do you think Maurice Greene will be able to knock out Gian Villante?