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JOE
LAUZON “If
He Wants to Go Toe-To-Toe,
©
Marc Wickert It’s
75 degrees, bright and sunny in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, as MMA
Lightweight star Joe Lauzon relaxes between training sessions for his
upcoming bout on September 17 against Kyle Bradley at Ultimate Fight
Night 14. “I’m
going training in an hour. It’s 5 in the evening here, and I
usually train from 10 till 2, then I have a couple of hours off till
about 6.30, before I train till about 9, five days a week,” says Joe
Lauzon. “This morning was a little lighter: I did stretching and
a little run, and that was about it. This evening, we have our
team training class, so we’ll do lots of MMA rounds, lots of shark
baits where they keep putting fresh people on me, lots of grappling and
kickboxing – all that kinda stuff.” For
Joe, it was by accident that he originally got into a fighting art:
Lauzon and his friends used to watch professional wrestling on TV, which
led to their getting hyped up by the on-screen action, and Joe says
they’d always end up in the backyard trying to beat each other up.
“Then my friends started taking jiu jitsu and I got sick of being
triangle-choked and everything else, so I started training in jiu jitsu.
Later they started fighting so I started fighting.” Lauzon was 17 when he commenced jiu jitsu lessons, and now at 24, he still trains with his original coach. “Joe Pomfret’s been my trainer since day one so he’s also the first coach I had. He was a sniper in the marines and he did karate as a kid as well as boxing and jiu jitsu… a little bit of everything. And he also teaches seventh grade children – he’s a really interesting guy.”
Joe,
what gym do you train at? “It
was Reality Self Defense, but it’s changed over to Lauzon Mixed
Martial Arts. Joe made me a partner in the school and we figured
that we’d catch a lot of people who knew me by naming the gym after
me.” Hollywood
Steve Maze is your boxing coach. Does he do ordinary boxing with
you or is it a modified MMA style? “Modified
MMA style, pretty much: He’s very good… a great boxing coach.
Some guys will tell you to do something, but he really understands the
small details and how to modify it to work for MMA.” Do
Hollywood and Rudy Valentino (kickboxing) work in together, training
you? How does that work? “I
work back at home with Steve Maze in boxing, and Rudy Valentino is in
Hawaii – he’s BJ’s boxing coach, so I worked with him on The
Ultimate Fighter and when I was in Hilo, Hawaii.” Is
there a conflict in the styles? “It’s
a little bit different, but they’re both good at different things:
Steve is good at the hands part of it – boxer stuff, and Rudy is good
with the elbows, knees, kicking…” And
you marry the styles together. “Exactly.” Does
Steve Baccari usually take you first up in the day? “Yeah,
I do my strength and conditioning with Steve, a couple of times a week.
He just trained Andrade ‘Boo Boo’ Demetrius in the Olympics.
Steve’s helped a bunch of guys and he mainly works with fighters.” What
is BJ Penn like? “He’s
super cool and very helpful… He just loves to train and loves to
fight.” You
defeated Jens Pulver by TKO in your UFC debut (UFC 63). What was
the feeling like? “It was pretty cool. It was unexpected to beat him the way I did, and it was a big jump from the fighters I’d fought before.”
What
do you know about Kyle Bradley? “Good
boxing, good jiu jitsu, and a very good athlete. He lost pretty
quickly in the first round of the UFC to Chris Lytle, but the fight was
at a higher weight class and Kyle took it at short notice. I know
he’s a dangerous opponent and he’s fought some big guys.” Will
his plan be to keep your fight standing? “I’m
guessing he’ll want to keep it standing. I really don’t think
he’ll want to mess with me on the ground, but who knows? Maybe
he will want to put me on the ground.” How
does your toe-to-toe compare? “I’m
not really afraid to go toe-to-toe with anyone. I’m good at the
individual pieces on their own, but I really strive at putting the
things together: mixing my boxing, jiu jitsu, wrestling and everything
else. So if he wants to go toe-to-toe, I’ll be ready for him.” Has
Joe Pomfret been working on a strategy with you for Kyle? “My
brother Dan (10-2-0) just fought in the UFC, so he’s very good too,
and we’re getting better… Dan and I will get together with Joe and a
couple of other guys, and we’ll come up with something that we really
want to work on and we’ll keep our training focused.” Are
you expecting this to be a big showdown? “Hopefully
not. We don’t get paid by the round, so I’ll just be in and
out as soon as possible. I like to take them out early, but I’m
not opposed to a war either.” Joe
Lauzon’s sponsors? “Sprawl,
Stager.com, MMAWharehouse.com, and Zappos.com.” Joe,
is there anything you’d like to add? “Thanks
to everyone for watching. The fans make the sport, so a big thanks
to them.”
For
more on Joe Lauzon: www.joelauzon.com.
For
more on Ultimate Fight Night 14: www.ufc.com. Joe
Lauzon vs. Jens Pulver: http://www.knucklepit.com/mixed-martial-arts-ufc63.htm. Joe Lauzon vs. Jason Reinhardt: http://www.knucklepit.com/mixed-martial-arts-ufc78.htm.
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