Filipovic is fighting with a sense of urgency because he realizes that not only is this perhaps his final shot in the UFC, but he may be looking at the end of his career, “I’m ready to prove that I am a complete fighter and that I have a lot of good fights left. Of course I’m fighting for my job, and I know this, so I am prepared to win no matter where the fight goes.” the best feeling in the world is a hard workout, a shower and a protein shake. This is my life and I don’t want to give this up. This is my life. Martial arts gave me everything in life. It is not about a paycheck, it is about how I live my life. I don’t fight for free. I am not an idiot, but it is about fighting for victory.
“People say people who spend too many years in prison don’t know how to act when they get free. I don’t know how I am going to act, how I am going to kill time, once I am not a fighter,” he continued. “Retirement scares me, and I have to think about how I am going to handle it. But right now my body is fit and healthy. My body allows me to train hard all week. If I was old I couldn’t do that. Some people are old at 30, some 33. [UFC Hall of Famer] Randy Couture wasn’t old until he was nearly 50. Right now, I am not old. When I am, I will retire.”
Not only does he insist he’s not an old fighter, he resents insinuations that he’s too one-dimensional to succeed in the current environment, where the best fighters are competent, or more, in all disciplines. He’s clearly a hard puncher and a kicker, but he’s been besieged with questions about how he’d handle elite wrestlers or top-level jiu-jitsu fighters.
Though he lost to former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir at UFC 119 in a dreadful affair, he wasn’t submitted and never was close to it. Mir has arguably the best jiu-jitsu among heavyweights in MMA, but it took a punch to knock out Filipovic.
Filipovic said he’s not simply a kick boxer, though that’s how he’ll be introduced Saturday in the Octagon by ring announcer Bruce Buffer. He said he is a multi-dimensional fighter and insisted he will have no concern grappling with Nelson, a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, if the fight winds up on the ground.
“I think it’s stupid to say a guy who has trained in jiu-jitsu for as long as I have is just a stand-up fighter,” Filipovic said. “I have trained with some of the best black belts in the world. I am comfortable on the ground. I can fight wherever the fight goes and not be concerned.