V. Luque is on a four-fight winning streak in the UFC. (Photo: Jeff Bottari/UFC)
Living the best phase of his career, the welterweight Vincent Luque returns to the Octagon this Saturday (18), at UFC London, looking for his fifth consecutive victory in the organization. To do this, he will have to overcome two obstacles: his opponent, Leon edwards, and the home fans, who will be in favor of their opponent, a Jamaican naturalized Englishman. However, the Brazilian guarantees that the fact of fighting under pressure from the public makes him even more motivated to achieve his goals.
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“Actually, fighting away from home motivates me more. I really like challenges, so fighting at my opponent's home, with the crowd against me, makes me try to win over the public and make them like me. I want to do a good performance there. If they don't start to like me, at least they'll respect me (laughs). It's the best moment of my career, without a doubt, the main reason is to try to evolve as much as possible inside the fight and outside, with physiotherapy, keeping my body and mind healthy. On the psychological side, the most important thing is to be prepared for the day of the fight. It's not every day that you will have a good day, that you will be happy at work, just like in other professions. With psychological work, you create consistency by knowing the importance of giving your best in training. On the day of the fight, you are in front of millions of people, so a lot can go through your head, so I work with the psychologist to stay as calm as possible”, declared the fighter, in an interview with the website 'Combate.com'.
Asked what strategy he will adopt to face Edwards, Luque said he is prepared to play in any area of the game. “I saw a lot of videos of Leon edwards. I train and I get along well with left-handedness, I don't think it will be a disadvantage for me. He's a prepared guy, I have to be ready for any type of situation. The first strategy for my fights is to fight standing up. Depending on what happens, we'll look for the ground, but I'll feel it throughout the fight. I have a lot of weapons on the floor, mainly because of the beginning of my career. I started in muay thai, so I always tried to keep the fight standing, but many opponents tried to take me to the ground, so I needed to develop wrestling. In the beginning, I trained a lot to overcome this disadvantage. Today I can have both standing and ground fighting as strong points”, said the Brazilian.
Outside the top 15 welterweights, Vicente does not hide his desire to face a ranked opponent next and, step by step, go in search of the category belt. Until Georges St Pierre, the division's dominant former champion, is on the Brazilian's radar.
“My main goal is to be champion in my category. The current idea is to win this fight and get a fight later with someone in the top 15, to continue in the search for the belt. A guy who would really like to fight, and thought he wouldn't have the opportunity, is (Georges) St-Pierre, because he came back, despite being in the top category. Since the time he held the welterweight belt, no one could beat him, so I always thought: “That's a guy I'd like to fight,” he concluded.
Luque, 25 years old, has won four consecutive victories – two submissions and two knockouts –, results that have left him close to the top 15 in the division. His last triumph was at UFC 205, in November 2016, when he knocked out Belal Muhammad | in the first round. In total, there are 16 professional fights, with 11 positive results and five negative results (4-1 in the company).
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