MMAOddsBreaker’s Frank Trigg speaks with UFC 183 middleweight Tim Boetsch about his upcoming main card bout this Saturday night (Jan. 31, 2015) against Thales Leites at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The longtime UFC veteran knows Leites possesses a terrific ground game, but he’s expecting the Brazilian to continue his recent trend of aggressive striking in this bout:
“I think with the level of success [Thales Leites has] had his last few fights with that formula, I don’t see him straying at all. He’s definitely more confident in his striking ability than in the past and for good reason. He’s hitting people hard and hurting them. Why would he abandon that? That’s definitely something I expect to see early on in the fight. On paper, this looks like this is going to be an exciting fight if he goes with that style. It’s not technical, clean striking, but this is MMA and you don’t need to be a technical striker to be efficient. What he does is he puts a little fear into guys early and that opens up a whole new game for him. Once he gets that bully effect in the Octagon, it certainly lends to his game. Part of our game is just not allowing that to happen. He can try to come out and bully me early but I have to shut him down as quick as I can.”