Cigano promises: “He will try to take me down, but he will end up knocked out”

Despite the difficulties in getting to Las Vegas, when his flight leaving Brazil delayed his arrival on American soil by one day, junior gypsy does not hide his confidence to defend the Ultimate heavyweight belt for the second time. The revenge against Cain Velazquez, considered by many as the biggest threat to the Brazilian's reign, does not worry the Santa Catarina native based in Salvador.

For the Brazilian, despite having beaten his rival in the first duel, he considers himself a better athlete for the reunion against the former champion.

“The difference from the first one is that I'm faster, stronger, more experienced and I think I'm doing much better. They talk a lot about feeling the pressure of facing Velasquez as champion. I'm not feeling pressure, I think it's even more motivation to be able to fight him now as champion. The desire to continue winning and seeing things happen in my life is very strong”, said the Brazilian, who believes that the North American will try to take the fight to the ground from the beginning of the dispute.

“I think the fight will be a duel of styles. His intention will be to take me down, but I have a good takedown defense, and my intention is to keep the fight standing, to get the knockout. The fight will be him wanting to take me down and me wanting to stay up. No matter how many times he takes me down, I don't think he'll be able to play the game to keep me down. I'm going to get back to my feet, and the fight will be fought standing up. And the end of the fight will be him being knocked out”, said Cigano.

The fight between junior gypsy e Cain Velazquez will be the main attraction of UFC 155, an event scheduled to take place next Saturday (29), in Las Vegas, in the United States.

Check out the full event card below:

Main Card

Junior Gypsy vs. Cain Velazquez;

Joe lauzon vs. Jim Miller;

Tim Boetsch vs. Constantine Philippou;

Alan belcher vs. Yushin Okami;

Derek Brunson vs. Chris Leben;

Preliminary Card

Brad pickett vs. Eddie Wineland;

Byron Bloodworth vs. Erik Perez;

Melvin Guillard vs. Jamie Varner;

Myles Jury vs. Michael Johnson;

Philip De Fries vs. Todd Duffee;

Leonard Garcia vs. Max Holloway;

Chris Cariaso vs. John Moraga.