Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — Come UFC 301 this Saturday, Scotland’s Paul Craig will be fighting in Brazil for the third time, and looking for his first win in the country after a draw with Shogun Rua and loss to Johnny Walker.
Craig is also looking to bounce back from a setback against Brendan Allen, one that saw him learn a valuable lesson as a relatively new 185’er.
“We went back-to-back in a fight camp as a middleweight. We’d never done that before,” Craig (17-7-1) noted during Wednesday’s UFC 301 media day. “Going back-to-back as a light heavyweight is absolutely fine, because you’re not cutting as much weight. But being a middleweight and having to recut after a few months of already making that cut, we didn’t factor for that.”
Later, Craig noted jokingly that “testosterone was low, and we struggled to keep him up. He was a little bit limp. But now, you can hang a Duffle coat off him.”
“So moving forward, we know that we can’t take back-to-back fight camps. We know that. And if we do, then it has to be as a middleweight, then a light heavyweight. We can’t strip all the natural resources of our body.”
It was “Blonde Craig,” like “Blonde Brunson” and “Blonde Oliveira” before him, who turned up Wednesday in Rio. On the change in hair color, “it’s one of these things, being a fighter, you’re trying to shed the old version of yourself. We’re always looking to develop and become a better version of yourself,” Craig explained.
“This was me looking to mix stuff up, this was me looking at guys like Charles Oliveira, who with his blonde hair is unstoppable. [Derek] Brunson. These kind of guys. Just mixing stuff up.”
Asked whether he was poised to put on one of the better performances of his career against a young line in Caio Borralho, Paul Craig told Cageside Press that he believed so.
“Yes. One of the things, I’m 36 years old. I’m coming in in my prime. And that shows because, how many fighters coming into their prime can safely move down a weight class? That only through discipline, that’s only through the determination I’ve got to be something in this sport. So yes he is a young lion, but I genuinely believe this guy’s still got a lot more to give in this sport.”
“The best is yet to come, and I genuinely believe on Saturday, people are going to take note of my striking,” Craig, best known for his submission prowess, added. “It’s something that I’ve been working on as I’ve said for two years. And it’s coming through each fight, and it’s looking slightly better. This is the night where people are going to say ‘Oh, Paul Craig, he’s a legitimate threat within this division.'”
Watch the full UFC 301 media day appearance by Paul Craig above.
