Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Chris Lytle "I think it will be a Great Fight"

Originally posted on FightHype.com

"I like that fight. He used to be a pro boxer and so was I. I think the fight makes sense and that has "great fight" written all over it. These are the type of fights I want to be in. I like fights like that and on paper, it makes perfect sense. I think it will be a great fight and people are going to love it. It has all of the ingredients for a fight that I would like to be in and I've always wanted to go to Ireland," stated UFC welterweight contender Chris Lytle as he talked about his anticipated clash with Marcus Davis. Check out what else he had to say about the fight, his recent win over Paul Taylor at UFC 89 and much more.

PC: Congratulations on your UFC 89 win over Paul Taylor.

CL: Thank you!

PC: How do you feel about your performance?

CL: I feel pretty good about my performance. There were a couple of things that I wasn't too happy with. I got pretty tired there in the fight and got sloppy with my punches. I looked at him at the weigh-ins and I knew he was a real technical kickboxer, but I just felt like I could hurt him. I feel like I kind of got my strategy changed from going in there and outboxing him to slugging it out and trying to hurt him. I really felt like I could hurt him with punches. I felt like, with my boxing experience, that if I landed a good body punch, it would slow him down. I was really winging some good body punches and hitting him with some good head shots, but the body punches didn't seem to bother him as much as I thought they would. He stood up to all of my punches and I was really impressed with his ability to take a punch.

PC: You had a distinct advantage on the ground and you got him there a couple times, but you never seemed to want to advance a position. So the gameplan was definitely to bang it out with him?

CL: Yeah, that was definitely my gameplan. I know he is always improving on his ground game and I knew I had an advantage there, but it kind of bothered me when certain people would tell me not to stand up with this guy. It kind of checked my pride and ego and I said, "You know what? I don't want people to belittle my standup ability." I feel like I'm one of the top strikers in the division and I didn't want to go out there and shoot for a takedown and work my ground game. First of all, that's not why the UFC put me in that fight. They put me in that matchup to see a good fight. I would rather be in a 3 round war then to go in there and take the easy way out. If I would've went out there and secured a submission, who would be talking to me about that fight later on? Probably not many people. I'm willing to go out there, and maybe it's an ego thing, but it made me try to fight a better fight. That's the kind of fights I want to be in right now. I want to be in very exciting fights.

PC: I know it's always a bonus to win a little extra money and at the same time please the fans. It seems like you're always fighting great fan-friendly fights. Is that important to you?

CL: Oh yeah! I still get people that come up to me and tell me one of the greatest fights they've ever seen is me and Robbie Lawler's fight. That's a great compliment to me to know that 5 years later, fans still like that fight. That type of stuff says more to me than a submission win over Tiki. At this point in my career, I want as many of those types of fights that I can get. If they throw me in the right type of fights, they're going to get what they saw at UFC 89. I'm not saying I'm going to go out there and fight exactly the way I did, but I'm going to try to put on the best show possible.

PC: I had you winning the fight as well, but it was close. Were you a little shocked that you got a close decision in the UK?

CL: The only reason I was is because I've had a lot of questionable decisions, in my opinion, losses in other people's hometowns and I saw one of the fights on the undercard. Gono fought Dan Hardy on the undercard, against another British fighter, and I thought Gono won the fight and he lost. I was like, "Man, not this again!" I tried to do a couple little things that I've learned in fights that were close for me. I tried to be the aggressor, throwing hard punches the whole time, pushing him backwards, keeping his back against the fence, which I know has lost me some fights, and trying to get at least one takedown a round; just little things like that. I was trying to take the guys head off, but when we was standing up, I was trying to do little things to win the fight. I felt like little things like that would make the difference. Who was being the aggressor and who was controlling the fight pace? I tried to get a couple of takedowns as the fight went on. I know they probably gave him the 3rd round, but I thought I won the first 2. I was just happy they didn't do what I thought they would. In most places, they're going to give it to the hometown guy. They get affected by every time he throws a punch. Even if it doesn't land, the crowd goes nuts. I was like 7 miles from where he was born so I knew they were for him.

PC: Do you enjoy traveling to fight in other countries?

CL: I love going to other places. I understand I'll probably be the guy being booed, but you know, I like traveling and going to other places. It's something…going into a guy's backyard and people booing you and wanting you to lose, and you go in there, take care of business and win (laughing).

Click here to read the entire article at fighthype.com

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