MMA Oddsbreaker’s Frank Trigg speaks with UFC Fight Night 35 middleweight Brad Tavares as he prepares for his main card bout next Wednesday night (Jan. 15, 2013) against Lorenz Larkin at The Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Georgia.
The Xtreme Couture fighter knows he’s in for a stern test against a very quick and athletic opponent, but The Ultimate Fighter season 11 veteran believes it will all come down to execution of the gameplan:
“I’m not taking anything away from Lorenz [Larkin]. I think he’s a really complete MMA fighter. You don’t see this guy go to the ground a lot and yeah, he’s not submitting guys, but if you watch his fights, he has excellent striking, his hands are really quick and he uses his footwork really well. He’s tough. He can take a punch, he can deliver a punch and on top of that, when people try to take him down, he has really good takedown defense. He has really good balance. In a lot of ways, we’re a lot alike. I think I’m longer than him, I’m taller, I’ll have the reach advantage. I just have to make sure I’m not standing in range, get lazy and let him hit me because he’s quick and he can pop those punches off. Coming up with a gameplan for a guy like Lorenz wasn’t hard. Now it just comes down to executing.”