Airdrie UFC star Paul Craig says playing Top Trumps can help him to a huge win over Swiss opponent Volkan Oezdemir in London on Saturday night.
Craig, 34, reckons he's better than the Swiss in almost every department, but 30-year-old Oezdemir's striking is sufficiently strong that the Lanarkshire man has no intention of keeping the fight standing.
UFC returns to London with Tom Aspinall and Curtis Blaydes facing off in the main event.
Craig is ranked No.8 in the light heavyweight rankings, but knows he's coming up against a former title challenger.
He said: "Everybody in the top ten is going to have amazing grappling.
“There’s nobody in the top ten that’s going to have no jiu-jitsu in there. I find it unbelievable if you manage to get to the top ten of any division without a basic understanding of jiu-jitsu.
“He’s got a very, very good defence for his double leg, I know that, but I believe my wrestling is slightly better than his.
“The way I look at it, I remember playing this game with my kids, it’s called Top Trumps.
“Is my striking as good as Oezdemir’s? Nah, he’s potentially going to win that, right? He’s probably like a ten, I’m probably like a three, so I’m not going to use that card.
“I believe my jiu-jitsu is better than his, I’m probably like a ten, he’s like a three, and then it’s the same for my wrestling.
“I believe my wrestling is higher than his calibre of wrestling. I know he’s been training at AllStars, he’s training with Alistair Overeem, he’s training with all these guys. His training partners will not have my style of jiu-jitsu.
“It’s very hard to mimic it, it’s very hard to get somebody like me, who’s built like a swimmer and has the attributes that I have
“For somebody to copy how Oezdemir fights, it’s so much easier. Walk forward, swing lefts, swing rights, try to knock me out. That’s easy to mimic.
“Not a lot of people can do what I can do.”
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