Maldonado: ‘My strategy is a bloodbath’
Fabio Maldonado: “Win or lose, I can get beat up bad Saturday night, but when I get in there I turn off the f@$% button and I go for the kill.”
Stipe Miocic was supposed to fight Junior dos Santos in the main event of the TUF: Brazil 3 Finale on Saturday night. When JDS got injured, light heavyweight Fabio Maldonado stepped way up and took the fight.
“My manager Alex Davis called me saying that Joe Silva asked for a favor and I told him that I’m a man and I live to fight,” Maldonado told Guilherme Cruz for MMAFighting. “My third son was born two days ago. If I had said no to this fight, what would I tell him in the future? Win or lose, I can get beat up bad Saturday night, but when I get in there I turn off the f— button and I go for the kill.”
“I wouldn’t take this fight if it wasn’t a five-round fight. I love the fact that it’s five rounds, even though he had more time than me to prepare. Anything can happen. I believe that five rounds is better for me. Let’s see who has a better cardio.”
“He rocked Roy Nelson. If you think for a second, Roy Nelson has more knockouts at heavyweight than I have at 205, and he took some shots from Roy Nelson. Maybe I’ll be the one taking him down, I don’t know. I’m going for a suicide.
“I did this my whole life. I always got beat up and come back. He’s stronger than me and maybe he even surprises me standing, but I’m well trained and I’m going forward, you know that.
“My strategy is a bloodbath on Saturday night. I promise that from the bottom of my heart. If 80 percent of that blood is mine, I’m okay. I can’t promise I’m going to win, but I can promise a war.”