UFC 265: surging lightweight star Rafael Fiziev looks for another showreel finish against Bobby Green
- Phuket-based Kazakh faces veteran American Green as he sets sights on a ranking
- ‘This guy is very tough. I respect him. But I don’t think that he has more experience than me,’ says Fiziev
In a perfect world Rafael Fiziev would have spent the past months treating his students at Phuket’s Tiger Muay Thai gym to a vision of the textbook three-shot combination that landed his opponent Renato Moicano flat on his back at UFC 256 in December.
Left to the midriff. Right to the temple. Left to the chin. And that’s all she wrote.
But times are anything but perfect right now and so the sharing – and the lessons that will undoubtedly follow – will have to wait. Phuket’s gyms remain closed because of the global pandemic and Fiziev has been in the US for the past three months, training in Florida at Sanford MMA, and he’s been waiting for his next opportunity as he looks to rise up the UFC’s lightweight rankings.
That time now comes on Saturday, when the Thailand-based Kazak (9-1) faces the American veteran Bobby Green (27-11-1) at UFC 265 in Houston, Texas. Fiziev has thoughts to share on this particular fight and where it might take him but first let’s go back to Las Vegas and to that finish of the Brazilian Moicano (15-4-1), one that had the UFC’s cageside commentary team squealing with delight.
“It’s a good combination,” laughs the 28-year-old Fiziev, talking this week via Zoom from Houston. “It was good because I knew my opponent was long, longer than me. I knew I needed to come from inside. Slip inside and work from this position because outside is sometimes not so good with long guys.