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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Farah Hannoun and Ken Hathaway

Michal Oleksiejczuk plans to stop Cody Brundage’s takedowns, ‘destroy his face’ at UFC Fight Night 216

LAS VEGAS – Michal Oleksiejczuk is confident Cody Brundage won’t be able to get him to the ground at UFC Fight Night 216.

Winner of three of his past four, Oleksiejczuk (17-5 MMA, 5-3 UFC) faces Brundage (8-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) in Saturday’s main card opener at the UFC Apex. The card streams on ESPN+.

Coming off a first-round TKO of Sam Alvey in August, Oleksiejczuk will look to punish Brundage with his striking.

“Cody is a very good grappler,” Oleksiejczuk told MMA Junkie and other reporters at UFC Fight Night 216 media day on Wednesday. “He’s similar like Duraev. I think that Cody won’t take me down and (submit me). I must (show) takedown defense and destroy his face with my hard punches.”

Oleksiejczuk was originally scheduled to face Albert Duraev before being replaced by Brundage. The 27-year-old Polish fighter sees similarities in both matchups, which means he didn’t have to make too many changes.

“I think it’s a good change, because Cody is similar like Duraev,” Oleksiejczuk said. “I trained a lot of takedown defense, submission defense – this is a good change for me. I am ready.”

He continued, “My preparation for this fight was very similar.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 216.

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