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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Nik Lentz has been on quite the run at featherweight since making the drop last summer, and it's brought him to a massive fight on Saturday night against Chad Mendes at UFC on Fox 9. The Minnesota native was going to fight in November before the UFC offered him the Mendes fight, and he didn't waste any time in stepping up for this matchup.
"I love this fight," Lentz said in an interview with Duane Finley at UFC.com. "When they called me I was ecstatic. Nothing against any of the other guys I was going to fight, but this is the kind of fight we expected after racking up three wins over the caliber of people I beat. Initially, when we didn't get one of the top five guys, we were pretty disappointed with that. But then karma or whatever interjected and the fight I wanted came to be. The UFC called me up asking if I wanted to fight Mendes and I couldn't say yes fast enough."
"...I guarantee when I get in there and get in his face, he's going to revert back to his old style of how he used to fight and it's not going to work because I'm a better wrestler than he is and I'm stronger and bigger than him. He has no real physical or talent advantages over me. When it comes to the fight on December 14 he's going to be in for a rude awakening. I'm bigger, stronger, faster and I'm a smarter, more technical fighter than he is."
There's no mistaking the confidence Lentz has felt at 145 lbs., something he credits to his work with nutritionist Mike Dolce and his move from Minnesota to Florida. He had been switching time between The Academy of Martial Arts in Minnesota and American Top Team in Florida, but he's since made Florida his home, and feels better than ever into this matchup.
"I feel like a new human being at 145 pounds," Lentz said. "I'm stronger. I'm actually bigger than I was at 155 muscle and weight-wise. I work with Mike Dolce and gained about 10 pounds of muscle and lost 10 pounds of fat. I switched to American Top Team and things have never been better. I was just doing little camps down here and my improvement was phenomenal. Now, I live down here full-time and this is the first fight camp where I've actually been living in Florida and I'm in this gym every day. I've made an insane amount of improvement and things couldn't be going better. I'm excited and I can't wait for December 14."
Lentz feels he's got the skills to break Mendes in California, and thinks he's going to show people just how good he is in this division.
"I always think I can break someone with cardio," Lentz said. "One of the things people don't understand is that when I get a hold of you, you aren't going anywhere. I'm one of the strongest pound-for-pound fighters in the UFC. A lot of times before the fight starts, people have an idea like they can move and get away from me. When I fought Diego [Nunes], nobody had been able to take him down. It was really hard for anyone to hold him down, but when I put him on the ground, I could just feel him break mentally.
"I think the same thing is going to happen with Chad. Once I get a hold of him he's going to realize that for all the training he's done, he couldn't replicate what I bring to the table. I can't wait for this fight. I'm looking forward to it and it's really going to be my chance to shine."
The 29-year-old Lentz is looking for nothing less than a victory on Saturday night, and from there plans a run at UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo.
"I think a victory in this fight puts me in line for a title shot for sure," Lentz said. "When I beat Chad Mendes, I expect to be in the title talk. I didn't accept the fight for any other reason than I want to be a world champion. I don't know names or anything, but I know a lot of people turned down this fight with Chad. I already had a fight scheduled and had a sure payday lined up. But when they offered me the fight, I threw that away because I want to be the No. 1 contender and I want to fight Jose Aldo. I want him to keep that belt because I want to be the one to beat him."
Penick's Analysis: This is such a huge fight at 145 lbs. Mendes has clearly proven to be one of the best and most talented fighters in the world in this division, while Lentz wants to show that he belongs in that conversation as well. The question is which of them can impose their gameplan. Lentz obviously believes he'll be able to throw Mendes off, and if he manages to plant him on his back and keep him there, he's got the ground and pound game to give Mendes as big a challenge as he's yet faced. He might just be able to pull that off, but it's one of those things that is hard to see playing out until it actually plays out.
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_19544.shtml
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