Maurice “The Crochet Boss” Greene returns to action for the first time in 2021 at UFC on Vegas 26.
After starting 2020 out with a loss to Alexey Oleynik at UFC 246 and with his back against the wall, Greene would bounce back with one of the most underrated submissions of the year. In the third round of his fight against Gian Villante at UFC on ESPN: Poirier vs. Hooker would survive a last-ditch effort from Villante and submit him from his back with an arm triangle choke – a rare occurrence. Greene would give a memorable, passionate post-fight speech afterward.
In an exclusive interview with Cageside Press, Greene spoke a little about that submission.
“I just do jiu-jitsu, man, I do jiu-jitsu,” Green said. “There are a lot of MMA fighters who do jiu-jitsu as well, but I DO it. I don’t do jiu-jitsu just for MMA, I do jiu-jitsu for jiu-jitsu, and I like arm triangles. I knew you could get them from the bottom, and I knew he was sucking air, and I knew if I got it just right, I could get the tap. And I did; I’m the second person to do it.”
Greene would fight four months later on Halloween but would lose to Greg Hardy.
Now, with him moving his family out of Minnesota and with a new training camp, “The Crochet Boss” feels refreshed and better than ever. He fights fellow Ultimate Fighter alumni Marcos Rogerio de Lima on ESPN.
Grene is looking to make a statement against de Lima as well as buy a house.
“Bro, I’m gonna be honest with you, at the end of the day, in 2021, um, my goal is to buy a house for my family. I know when I win a few fights, that dream is going to come true,” Greene said. “That is my driving force; I don’t give a fu*k what, man- from the most respectful, humblest place, I don’t give a fu*k what Mr. de Lima is doing right now. I’m hoping he’s doing everything in his power, which I think he is, because I am, um, to make sure he comes out here and puts on a show, but it’s not going to be enough.”
“I put in too much fu*king work at this point; I’ve taken a lot of time off to get better. I’ve gotten better; there is just no other fu*king outcome than me coming out there and doing what I want to do with him. Is he going to hit me? Yes. Is he going to hurt me? He could. But I’m going to fu*king win, and there is nothing that is going to stop that from happening. It’s just where I’m at. I put in the most work I’ve ever put in my career. I mean, I spend 12 hours in the gym just lifting weights a week. I’ve done that since January, and I hate lifting fu*king weights; it’s not fun for me. It’s not fun; it’s not cool to me, you know. But I know it has to be done…. as I said, I just want to buy a house this year, and we’re going to make that happen.”
He continued to say that he needs to beat three people this year and maybe a 50k Performance of the Night bonus. But de Lima is the first step in his quest to buy a house.
Greene vs. de Lima goes down next weekend at UFC Vegas 26 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Check out the rest of the interview above, where Maurice talks about his training camp, painting coasters, living in Albuquerque, catching COVID, and more!
