UFC 102 Preview: Krzysztof Soszynski Talks Brandon Vera

Krzysztof Soszynski will quite possibly be fighting the biggest fight of his career next week in Brandon Vera.  He'll be taking this fight on short notice as well, but that doesn't seem to bother Soszynski as he's become accustomed to that as of late.  Soszynski had this to say on his upcoming opponent:

He's probably the first person in the UFC that I'm fighting that's really well-rounded, from striking to wrestling to his jiu-jitsu," Soszynski said. "It's going to be a huge test for me, but I'm really excited for the opportunity. I'm looking forward to this fight. I think it's going to be fireworks. We're going to stand and bang and see what happens

Soszynki will probably be better served to take this fight to the ground opposed to trying to stand and back with someone like Vera.  He speaks on what he struggled with most as he was just starting out in MMA:

I used to be such a bad mental fighter," Soszynski admitted. "Now everything has just turned around completely. Everything is coming together, and it's the perfect time for me to fight Brandon Vera.

Bas Rutten and Shawn Tompkins, they started to slowly help me out with that.  Now, over the course of time with Dan Henderson and how cool, calm and collective he is – how relaxed he is – it just kind of helps out. One day it clicked. You have to go out there and have fun. All the hard work you put in during the training camp and the practices with your teammates, the fight is the fun part. My last two fights, I came out with a smile on my face, singing my song, shaking hands with everybody and giving hugs to my opponents. It's all about having fun, now.

Brandon Vera has gone through his share of ups and downs as well as he was one of the UFC's most notable up and comers just a couple of years ago.  However, losses of 2 out of 3 fights kind of dimmed the lights for him so to speak.  The winner of this one will be one step closer to calling out fighters closer to that upper echelon of LHW in the UFC LHW shark tank.  Which one will come out on top?

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HT: MMAJunkie