OTTAWA – Derek Brunson isn’t deluding himself. He’s had some of the highest of highs in the middleweight division during his UFC stint. He’s also had some of the lowest of lows.
Brunson (18-7 MMA, 9-5 UFC) has seven first-round knockouts in the UFC. He’s also lost in key spots whenever he’s built momentum, and is coming off back-to-back losses to Israel Adesanya and Ronaldo Souza.
But Brunson knows he’s still got time to adapt his game to changing times. And that’s why he’s moved out of the comfort zone of his home gym in Wilmington, N.C., to go to the Hard Knocks gym in South Florida, to train for his UFC Ottawa co-feature bout against Elias Theodorou on Saturday.
“It’s my time to step it up, you know?” Brunson told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “Back at home, I have a gym in Wilmington, N.C. We’re growing mixed martial arts in the area, and I just didn’t have enough bodies to keep pushing me, and I tried that formula for a couple years, so we had to get it to where we could get guys who can push me so that whenever fight time comes, I’ll be ready.”
Ideally, for Brunson, this means that he won’t have to sacrifice a crowd-pleasing style for the fans at Canadian Tire Centre, but will be able to better pick his spots.
“I know I got the power to knock guys out,” Brunson said. “I can knock them out in the first round. I believe I have most first round (knockouts) i the UFC middleweight division. I just gotta find a better way and smarter way to do it, you know? And not put myself at risk so many times, so I feel like we’re going to find a happy medium here.”
In the meantime, Brunson had braced himself for a chilly reaction from the people in Ottawa, since Brunson is fighting an Ontario native in Theodorou(15-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC). But this far, he’s finding the fans are taking to him.
“It’s funny, because I felt like I was going to be not recepted by the Canadian fans,” Brunson said. “But I had a lot of people on my Twitter hit me up on social media saying ‘hey man, I want you to win this fight, we from Canada but I’m pulling for you.’ So I appreciate y’all.”
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