John Makdessi Says He Got All Scratched Up at UFC 158
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 03.18.2013
It was irritating...
John Makdessi spoke with MMAjunkie about his win over Daron Cruickshank at UFC 158. Check out the highlights:
On Cruickshank leaving him scratched up: "I thought he was a little bit disrespectful at one point because he had a weird defense, and he kept shoving his fingers in my face. It was a little irritating in the second round. In the last (round), he poked me. I was full of scratches – my whole body, my whole neck. my back. I was all scratched up. I don't know if it was his glove or his nails or whatever."
On the experience as a whole: "The Bell Centre, it's an incredible feeling – the energy, the vibe, everything. It was a crazy experience."
On Cruickshank's game plan initially throwing him off: "If I'm trying to box with a guy and he has his fingers sticking out in my face, I'm always aware of that. It's hard for me to box with him, strike with him, if he's doing that. ... I'm not saying he's doing it intentionally, but it was very weird for me. It was the first time I had a fight like that."
On what he learned fromo the fight: "Unfortunately, in MMA, we only have three rounds. In boxing, they go up to 12 rounds. Sometimes, for three or four rounds, the fighters are feeling each other out. But we both respected each other, and we both knew what we were capable of. It's a process. It's a chess game. I just don't want to walk into anything. I try to be a smart fighter in the sense of feeling him out and what he'll throw at me. I'm trying to calculate moves and counters and timing and whatever it is. There's a lot of things going in my head, and I'm just trying to process it."
