Chas Skelly (14-1) förlorade sin UFC-debut mot Mirsad Bektic (10-0), men har sedan dess vunnit tre matcher i rad och kommer att ta sig an Kevin Souza (15-3) på UFC Fight Night 77.
Förlusten mot Bektic fick Skelly att ändra sitt tankesätt kring sin fightingstil. Skelly medger att han inte alls hade tränat någon brottning inför matchen mot Bektic, utan Skelly tänkte bara på att gå ut och vinna via KO och känner sig dum som ignorerade brottningsaspekten i MMA.
“I feel like the Bektic fight grounded me a little bit,” berättade Skelly för MMAjunkie Radio. “The thing that I did and I realized from that fight is that I have to come out and fight my style. Up to that point I think I gameplanned a little too much. I was thinking about what they were going to do to me instead of what I was going to do to them. I think it was a mindset change more than anything. I think physically I was ready for the fight. Mentally I was ready for the fight as well. But I didn’t go out there and execute the way that I always do. I didn’t stick to what I do best, I tried to adjust to what I thought he was going to do to me.”
“My gameplan going out was that I didn’t want to wrestle at all. I didn’t even work my wrestling for that camp. I really wanted to knock him out. I was stupid during the camp ignoring one whole facet of the sport.”
När Skelly började med MMA, sparrades han väldigt ofta, men nu är Skelly mer försiktig när det gäller sparring.
“I don’t spar nearly as much,” sa Skelly. “It’s kind of funny. When I first got into MMA, we sparred every other day or every day. I wanted to spar as much as I possibly could. It was spar and spar and spar. The funny thing is, now I’m much more protective about it. I wear a lot of protective gear. I feel like such an idiot. When I first got into the sport we sparred in small gloves. I don’t think I even owned a mouthpiece for six months. I was like, ‘I don’t care. I don’t give a sh-t.’ It’s just changed to a different spectrum. It couldn’t change any more for me.”
Skelly har en bestämd gameplan inför matchen mot Souza och det är att pusha framåt hela tiden och inte låta Souza diktera matchen.
“I want to go out there and push this kid,” sa Skelly. “I’m going to stay in his face. Everybody in the fights that I’ve seen has stayed at distance and shyed away from the exchanges. They’ve really let him dictate the pace of the fight and dictate when he wants to exchange. I’m not doing to do that. I’m going to push forward. I’m going to dictate the exchanges and I’m going to dictate where the fight takes place. I think my ground game is leaps and bounds ahead of his. My prediction is a late first round or mid-second round submission.”
