It might be apropos, perhaps even too on the nose, but UFC veteran David Zawada believes his experience can be a game-changer at Oktagon 66.
Zawada (19-10) finds himself in the opening round of the latest Tipsport Gamechanger tournament, with the third edition thereof featuring the promotion’s best middleweight talents. Paired up against a strong kickboxer whose only loss came on Dana White’s Contender Series (via submission, it’s worth noting), “Zagat” nevertheless recently dismissed the idea that he needs to get Matej Penaz to the ground early.
“You know I come there to show the people MMA, mixed martial arts. I didn’t come to strike, I didn’t come just to grapple or wrestle because he’s a good striker,” Zawada told Cageside Press in an exclusive interview this week. “I will see at the time, this time I feel really comfortable because my preparation goes really good, and without a bad injury.”
“A fight is a fight. When everybody says ‘hey I have to go down,’ to take him down, they will see. I am here as a big underdog in this fight, with the papers. For me, it’s not problem, because the people only see your last fight, and my last fight wasn’t this good. They forgot my other fights, which I had with really, really tough opponents.”
Among those were fights were Zawada entered on short notice, and as the underdog. “I have the experience to change the game in the full fight.”
Speaking of changing the game, David Zawada changed weight classes a few fights back, moving from welterweight to 185lbs. Two fights in with a 1-1 record, he’s started to feel at home, and put on muscle. Which makes the weight cut a little more challenging than you might expect.
“The first two fights, it wasn’t this hard for me to cut for middleweight. But now I’m longer on muscle gain, so it took a little bit of time. I feel like I’ve grown, to the middleweight [division]. It’s pretty tough now. You will see how I look on the scale tomorrow, because I didn’t drop too much pictures,” Zawada stated.
Still, despite the cut being rougher this time out, “I feel great, my body language shows that also to me. In my mind I feel great, so I’m really, really [well] prepared for this fight,” he continued. “Of course everybody has some issues, I had them too, but hopefully I can compete this Saturday, which is the most important thing. With the full camp, I’m ready.”
With that in mind, would Zawada ever venture back to welterweight? Unlikely, unless a very lucrative offer comes across his desk.
“No I think not. Depends on the offer. Maybe there will be a good offer, some fighters in welterweight would be good on paper and in money. Then maybe I will go, but for now, it’s hard. I came down from 100 kilos, so it’s pretty tough.”
Watch our full interview with Oktagon 66’s David Zawada above.
