San Antonio, TX – If mom’s in the crowd it’s time to show out for UFC middleweight Chidi Njokuani who’s mother is expected to be in attendance at UFC San Antonio on Saturday night where he takes on Albert Duraev.
“It’ll be dope for her to come. She doesn’t come to all my fights so it’ll be nice to see her in the crowd,” Njokuani told reporters on Wednesday.
Njokuani (22-8) gets Duraev on the main card portion of UFC San Antonio this weekend. For the Dana White’s Contender Series alumn there will be no surprises heading into the fight knowing his opponent will attempt to implement the ground game early and often.
“I think anybody that fights me is going to try to be more grappling-heavy regardless of what they did their last fight. So I expect him to really come out and try to like push the pace on the ground,” Njokuani said.
“I’ve just got to get in there and work on my wrestling and Jiu Jitsu and all that.”
The plan remains the same for Njokuani who will try to take his opponent’s consciousness on the feet and nullify any plan to take him to the ground. Knowing his opponent’s likely game plan made it much easier to train for him.
“Game plans usually never change. It’s still try to stay pretty active everywhere. Try to stay in my Muay Thai gym, stay in my Jiu Jitsu gym and just kind of work on everything,” he said.
The Dallas native fights just over a 5-hour drive away from home and considers this a sort of homecoming. Might not be fighting in his hometown, but it’s close enough for friends and family to come out.
“Yeah it does (feel like I’m fighting at home) somewhat. Not exactly, but it’s close enough,” he said.
“Whoever can come is going to show up.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Chidi Njokuani above. He takes on Albert Duraev at UFC San Antonio on Saturday night.
