Patrick Cummins isn’t just chasing a win against Misha Cirkunov at UFC Moncton, he’s chasing the perfect performance as well.
Moncton, NB — Patrick Cummins has a tough match-up at UFC Moncton against Misha Cirkunov. While the Latvian, who’d been calling Toronto home until recently, has lost two straight, Cummins is clearly expecting Cirkunov to come out swinging. That said, what ‘Durkin’ is chasing now, what’s “keeping him in the game,” as he put is, is the “perfect performance.”
Maybe that will come against Cirkunov. Maybe not. Last time out, Cummins hit a road block in the form of Corey Anderson at UFC Atlantic City. Yet he was able to take away that “I can work through adversity.”
“It was a tough one for me,” Cummins said of that particular loss. “I got hurt early. It sucked. But I was able to tough it out, and I’m proud of that. But you also don’t want to be known as the toughest guy, or the guy with the best chin. I want to be known for other good things.”
Key among them? “I think what keeps me in it is I’m still looking for that perfect performance. It’s elusive,” Cummins explained. “Thinking about that — everybody does a lot of visualization, how the fight’s going to end or whatever. I just want those dots to connect. It’d make me feel really good.”
Of course, there’s the argument (and we made it) that there will never be a perfect performance. Cummins agreed, admitting that “it’s like chasing the dragon. I’ll be close, with like 90%, I’ll feel good about that.” 90% then. A tough order of business against an opponent like Cirkunov. Cummins will need to bring his A game, and is expecting Cirkunov to have his — especially out of the gate.
“I know he’s going to bring it early. That’s kind of been his pattern,” Cummins observed. “It’s just a matter of getting my head on straight out of the gate, and pushing that pace the whole way through.”
As for Cummins’ pick in Cormier vs. Lewis at UFC 230 next week, he’s once again siding with Cormier. Given he called Cormier over Miocic when we spoke to him back at UFC Atlantic City, we won’t bet against him. “He has heavyweight’s numbers,” Cummins said. “He’s had them for a long time. He’s a tough dude. It’s funny, you look at him, he doesn’t have the height, doesn’t have the reach, but just always in it, always tough, and he has a good mentality.”
Patrick Cummins meets Misha Cirkunov on the main card of UFC Moncton on Saturday, October 27 at the Avenir Centre in Moncton, NB. The card airs live on Fox Sports 1 (TSN 5 in Canada).
