Talk to me.

What would it mean to you to capture a title in that weight class?

What would it mean to me?

Um, just cementing further my legacy because I already have a little bit, actually, a lot, um, in this game.

But then being like you said, the fifth athlete in the in the sport's history to hold two belts simultaneously, Um, that just really at you in the history books.

For real, for real, is there?

What do you think?

I mean, you're 20 and oh, you're nine.

I know, since you have entered the UFC in February 2018, What do you believe?

You need to show this Saturday night.

Is it just about winning, or are you on a mission to really, really showcase something that we may not have seen from you before?

What's your mentality like coming into this fight?

Um, a little bit of both.

It's not just about winning.

I always win.

Boy, I was in a spectacular fashion.

When?

When?

When someone comes to play and this guy is coming to play for real.

Um, but also yes, I am a bit greedy in the sense that I kind of want to showcase a facet of my game that hasn't been seen much, which is the grappling aspect.

But he might want to showcase his stand up and show that legendary Polish power you keep talking about.

So, yeah, it depends on how he wants to play.

That's how he's going to go out.

You're a pleasure for students of the fight game to watch, because your style is I don't know if I've ever seen anything quite like it.

You switch hit like Terence Crawford, the welterweight champ.

You never know where the shot's gonna come from.

Its elbows, legs, arms, right handed, left handed, front foot, back foot, the whole thing.

And we've seen, like the Bronson fight, the strong I try to take you down Couldn't do it.

Anderson Silva, the legend.

But he's older, and the Gastelum fight like that to me, showed me something that I hadn't seen, where you got rocked and you came back and won.

What is what did that moment mean to you in terms of your development as a fighter and a champion?

To have that rocky moment that you had to overcome as opposed to just dominating the guy the entire time.

Yeah, there was a moment in my career.

Uh, that was that was defining.

And not just in my career, Like in the in the end of the fourth round, the beginning of the fifth round.

Just to make this clear, That quote I said to him was, You can't beat me.

I'm prepared to die.

And I said that.

And that's like, honestly, talk 31 of the greatest moments of my life because I let go of everything.

I surrendered to the great beyond.

I was like, This is how I go out.

This is how I go out.

Well, what a glorious death.

And when you're ready to die, you ready to live?

And when you're ready to die, you ready to kill?

Is there?

You was.

Obviously you've been fighting at 1 85.

You're moving up to two Oh, five for this fight.

Uh, Saturday night you're moving up £20 and I please forgive me.

I'm not I don't I know you can't look past your opponent, and I'm not asking you to I really am not.

But I know somebody else has been fighting at 205 And his name is John Wayne talking about him.

I'm sick of his actions.

Okay, Clouds dropping off my five weeks, I really give a fuck focused on one thing and one man only.

And that's the Viking Young Vlahovic in front of me.

But if I don't get past him, then all that doesn't matter.

So right now, this close to the fire, all I focused on is the guy in front of me and no cloud trouts.

Okay?

The guy in front of you, boy.

Hold on, Max.

We have the guy in front of you, boy.

Bitch, Knock out power.

That's what they're saying about him.

You're moving up £20 to fight.

A guy would knock out power.

How you fight differently for this fight compared to what you fight on at 1 85 Um, the same way I fight.

I won 85.

Uh, I hit and don't get hit.

It's the smartest way I fail to play the game, and I do it very well.

My last fight, I don't think I got touched on the face once in two rounds.

Um, and this guy, he's not as fast he's a little bit longer.

Um, he's very awkward with a style book.

They all find out pretty quick once they're in there with me.

How awkward I am as well.

Even though because I look clean.

It looks move with it.

You know what I mean?

So when I'm in there making it look clean, but the cadence is where the rhythm is, where that's awkward and they can't even they can't vibe with me like that.

Um, your defense is really interesting.

Not only you mean you lean straight back, but you do it offline, left and right.

And so you're slick and hard to hit and without getting into Jon Jones specifically, I know you don't want to mention that, but the light heavyweight division throughout the history of the UFC has been the glamour division.

I mean, middleweight, light, heavy.

Somehow it's like been the glamour division.

Is that meaningful for you to fight at light heavy and win a championship there.

Tried to.

It was the glamour division for a while.

I mean, you had guys like Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, T Ortiz, Rampage Jackson, great fighters like Daniel Cormier, you know, and so on.

Who who?

Um I guess you know, it was it was a stacked division.

It was a stacked division for a while.

But then eventually, when Joan started to fight recycled middleweights and recycled recycled opponents and failed to move up and wait, it goes stagnant.

So it was the glamour division.

And then, you know, the new dog in the yard came into the middleweight division and then put some shine on it, and there was light with as well that will stack for a long time.

So, yeah.

For me, it's just a showcase.

I mean, I look at this fight kind of like UFC 101 when Anderson Silva went up to fire Forrest Griffin and there was a showcase.

It was a master class.

It was in the Matrix, and he knocked him out doing the moonwalk.

It was crazy.

So yeah, this is I've got some big shoes to fill.

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