“It was like your friend calling you and saying, ‘hey, I got this free cruise.’ It was like a present. To be somebody, you got to beat somebody. Those other fights were kind of just another fight. When there’s an element of danger, when there’s more at stake, I perform better. I thrive under those circumstances. All this talk is cheap, when the cage door closes you have to rise to the occasion, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

TUF veteran, Akira Corrasani is set to face the biggest test in his career next week in Dustin Poirier.

The two featherweight fighters will be featured on the TUF Nations Finale card.

For Akira, Poirier represents his first top-ten opponent inside the UFC cage.

Will he rise to the occasion, or be starched by Dustin?

(quote via ‘The MMA Hour’)