Napao aims to finish Lewis
Gabriel Gonzaga: “My style is always the same, to go for the finish. I almost tapped him, but controlled the entire fight. I’m training to finish him by submission or knockout.”
UFC heavyweight Gabriel Gonzaga is tied for third most finishes in UFC history, with 11. However, heading into his last fight, vs. Konstantin Erokhin in December, he was on a three-fight losing streak. One more loss, and he was cut, again.
So Gonzaga fought an extremely careful, albeit fan unfriendly fight, and won.
He was scheduled to fight Ruslan Magomedov at Sunday’s UFC Fight Night 86 in Zagreb, Croatia, but the Russian was injured a month ago, so now he faces Derrick Lewis. Lewis is 5-2 in the UFC, with all fights ending by knockout; this fight is not expected to go to decision.
Gonzaga vows it will not.
“It wasn’t exciting because my opponent walked backwards all the time,” said Gonzaga to Guilherme Cruz for MMAFighting.com. “My style is always the same, to go for the finish. I almost tapped him, but controlled the entire fight.”
“I’m training to finish him by submission or knockout. I’m training hard to do my best in the fight. Jiu-jitsu has always been my main focus, but no one pulls guard. You have to take your opponent down, and you need perfect timing to do so. If I shoot recklessly, he has good elbows and is dangerous.”
“The strategy is to strike first to open spaces and go to the ground. He’s coming off good wins, he’s a heavy and strong guy, so I have to be careful. With heavyweights, one punch can make the difference.”
