Lauzon discusses Florian loss, Guillard win, Twitter
Read part one of The Fighting Life: Joe Lauzon
The next two years would bring both success and adversity for Joe Lauzon. After a stint on TUF, he went on to win his next two fights in the UFC before running into perennial contender Kenny Florian. Lauzon lost the fight and received plenty of criticism after the fight – all of which he listened to and took to heart.
“I’ve absolutely heard all the things people say about me. People have said if I’m facing a guy I’m a little bit better than, I would make them look terrible and absolutely smash them. But as soon as I fought someone who was better than me, I totally crumbled. They would say I didn’t have the gas tank or didn’t have what it takes. I never let that stuff bother me. I would read about it and live with it. I know what I have and what I don’t but I also know how hard I train.
“As far as the gas tank criticism goes? I’ve only been tired in three fights. Broomfield, Colorado was one, but everyone on that card with the exception of Gray and Frankie gassed in their fights. Against Sam Stout at UFC 108, I had ACL surgery less than 10 months before the fight and I tried to rush it. I had this vision in my head about coming back from the surgery in record time, winning the fight and adding an amazing chapter in my career. I definitely rushed it and things didn’t work out. The third time came against George Sotiropoulos. We screwed up with the hydration and all that other stuff. It gave people a reason to call my cardio suspect but I know I have good cardio.
“I do tons and tons of rounds, always against fresh guys and I never have a problem getting through them. But a lot of people seem to think I have no gas tank and don’t train hard. I joke online all the time about playing video games and people legitimately think I don’t do anything but play Xbox for 10-12 hours a day. They think I don’t go to the gym and that’s craziness. I work hard because there are always things I can improve on. I’m not the best boxer. I’m not the best wrestler. I’m not the best jiujitsu guy. I can pick any one of those areas and work my hardest to improve on them.”
Lauzon would bounce back from the loss to Florian, but fell into a give and take pattern. He looked sharp in wins over Kyle Bradley and Jeremy Stephens, but losses to Sam Stout and George Sotiropoulos kept him in the gatekeeper realm. The MMA world was ready to push Lauzon into obscurity.
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When he was called out by hard-charging contender Melvin Guillard, most assumed it would be the nail in the coffin for Lauzon’s career as a potential contender. He disagreed, accepted the challenge and once again shocked the world in proper Lauzon fashion.
“I’m very good at breaking things down and getting a feel for fighters as both fighters and people. I’m also good at analyzing game plans and figuring out how to beat them. For Melvin, we knew how to beat him. If you start backing up he comes on like a train and runs you over. If you come forward, he’s a totally different fighter. He has five or six things he likes to throw, throws them at random and he’s so quick it’s hard to stop. Melvin gets by on his quickness and we knew if we could negate his speed, predict a bit of what he was going to throw, it would be an easy fight.
“Of course, it’s easy for me to say that now, after the fact, because it wasn’t an easy fight. But game-plan wise, it was. We knew exactly what we were going to do and there was no question how we were going to approach the fight. It just so happens I went out there and did it. He jumped into a punch and that was that.”
It only took him 47 seconds to leave Guillard in shambles. In less than one minute Lauzon went from the guy who folds under the glare of the big lights to being in the mix of a highly competitive lightweight division.
“MMA fans are very hot and cold. They can be a fickle bunch. Before Houston everyone on The Underground was talking about how Melvin was going to knock me out and smash me, but after I win they are saying I should fight for a title. I’m sitting here like, ‘What are you guys talking about? How about somewhere in the middle?’ Let’s try to be a little more honest and fair. But that is the way it goes in MMA.”
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“I didn’t get a negative vibe from Pettis when he called me out. I also didn’t think it was that disrespectful when Melvin did it. I think Melvin was looking at me as more of a victim, whereas Pettis is looking at me as an opponent. I definitely don’t feel disrespected by Anthony calling me out. I think it’s a good fight.
“I think it will be exciting fight. Pettis is super entertaining. He is all over the place and has good boxing, jiujitsu and wrestling. He’s good everywhere. Those are the kind of guys I want to fight. I would much rather step in there against a guy like Anthony Pettis, who is dangerous all day long, over a wrestler who is not dangerous but will try to take me down and hold me there for three rounds. I don’t mind fighting dangerous guys when they are exciting. I think it sucks when you fight someone who only wants to take you down, grind you out and wait for the clock to tick down. Some people want to win that way but that is not me.
“We have a crazy division at 155 but I think over the next six months it is going to calm down. All of these badasses are going to have to fight each other and it will cut the division in half. I have to stay in that upper half because everyone is gunning for that title shot.”
While Super Bowl weekend is still several months away, things continue to come up roses for Joe Lauzon. He was recently awarded one of the UFC’s initial Twitter bonuses for his presence and participation in social media. UFC President Dana White has stressed the need for fighters to be active in interacting with fans – an avenue Lauzon has mastered for years.
“I’ve been at it for awhile,” Lauzon explained about social media. “If you go back to when I first started fighting on the local MMA circuit, I was networking even then. Local MMA shows have never done well because they could bring in awesome fighters but early on, nobody knew who the best fighters were. They could bring in Jeremy Horn, who at the time was on top of the world, but nobody knows who he is. Now if you bring in some local kid who trains in his garage for three months and he has eight million friends, they all come to watch him fight and he’s the fan favorite. People know him and have a connection to him. That’s why I went on The Ultimate Fighter because you are exposed to an audience and they have a connection to you.
“I have tons of people on Twitter who I’ve never met in my life but I’ve sent so many messages back and forth, I feel like I know them. I think it’s really cool. I started on MySpace and would get thousands of messages. I can type fairly quickly so I would respond to all of them. Granted, it would take me a week and I put in some good time but I got back to all those people. I feel like if you do that you will make a fan for life. Social media is definitely a powerful thing.”
