During his media day interviews, Paul Craig confirmed he would accept fights in both middleweight and light heavyweight in the future.
Paul Craig on Andre Muniz
This weekend Andre Muniz will make the walk as the opponent for Paul Craig’s debut at middleweight. He offers an immensely strong grappling game with 15 career submissions. Craig is close behind with 13. With both men’s strengths coming on the ground, it could be a key factor to finding the victor on Saturday night. When asked about the Brazilian, Craig had this to say:
“They [UFC] want exciting fights, you got a southpaw in Muniz who is a great grappler, and you’ve got a very exciting grappler in myself.” He followed up with, “Normally, what happens is when two grapplers get the opportunity to grapple, they turn it into a striking match, and I can see that happening.”
Test Weight Cuts
The drop from light heavyweight to middleweight is the biggest gap in the sports weight classes. Therefore Craig and his teamed have completed a test weight cut in preparation. The Scotsman seemed confident with the cut so far and is on course to safely make the scales tomorrow morning.
This is how he detailed the process: “After we came back from Vegas, my conditioning coach and my nutritionist came up with a plan. We done a fake weight cut, but we done a weight cut gone bad” This was a test to ensure that they would be ahead of schedule here in London, and that is the case.
Paul Craig: Jumping Between Weight Classes
“I’m going to jump between two if the fights are at light heavyweight, I will go light heavyweight, and if there are fights at middleweight, I will go there”, Was Craig’s response when asked about former foe Jamahal Hill vacating the belt and the drop-down to middleweight.
Craig has great wins at light heavyweight over top contenders and former champions and could see himself returning if the fights present themselves at the top of the division, especially possible rematches with Hill and Magomed Ankalaev. In Craig’s eyes, the title picture at 205lbs will play out with: “The winner of Blachowicz vs Pereira will then fight against Ankalaev for the actual title”, and he sees the opportunity to “slide in” to get the belt from however holds it.
Middleweight Title Picture
Craig was surprised to see Dricus Du Plessis get the victory this month over Robert Whittaker. A huge win that lined up a title shot against Israel Adesanya. However, he feels if that fight materialises, then “Izzy is going to drop his belt” due to the style of Du Plessis. However, the big South African will not be fit enough to fight at UFC 293, and that is why Sean Strickland will now get his shot in Sydney. Craig expressed his desire to face the controversial American, “I’d love to fight against Sean. I think it would be an amazing fight.”
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
