Fioravanti Vying for Triumph, Respect
Mike Sloan Jun 17, 2008
When the vast majority of mixed martial arts fans first saw
Luigi Fioravanti
(Pictures), he had been brought to the
Octagon more or less as cannon fodder for a popular veteran of "The
Ultimate Fighter."
Chris Leben (Pictures), a murderous puncher, was supposed to obliterate the Floridian inside a few minutes.
Things didn't go exactly as planned. Although Fioravanti lost a
unanimous decision, he gave as good as he took and proved a mettle
durable enough to remain under contract with the UFC.
Since then he has seen ups and downs, with big wins sandwiched between disheartening losses. Now, much like his April 2006 showdown with Leben, Fioravanti is supposed to help showcase another popular veteran of "The Ultimate Fighter" in Diego Sanchez (Pictures).
Message boards have lit up in recent days with fans discussing how quickly Sanchez will dispose of Fioravanti. Some figure it will take Sanchez a minute to slam him to the ground and then another minute before he bombards Fioravanti with strikes. Some think Sanchez will submit him, and others believe "Nightmare" will simply knock him cold.
"It makes me train harder, and for this fight, I have trained harder than I ever have before in my career because I want to go out there and prove people wrong," Fioravanti said. "Of course I want to get that respect, but that respect has to be earned. Of course I think he's a good fighter. He's really tough and he's exceptionally good on the ground. He's a top-10 welterweight, but I do think he might be overlooking this fight, you know? A win against him would turn a lot of heads."
Though Fioravanti has strung together a two-fight winning streak, he's quickly become one of the most overlooked fighters on the circuit. He trains with a prominent core of professionals in Florida at American Top Team, but it still seems that many people cast him aside as a viable threat at 170 pounds mainly because his last fight wasn't exactly aesthetically pleasing.
Or in Fioravanti's words: "It f---ing sucked. It was not great."
He won a unanimous decision over Luke Cummo (Pictures) in March at UFC 82, but it was one of those performances that might have damaged his stock more than a loss would have. The situation is similar to what fellow welterweight Mike Swick (Pictures) faced after his encounter with Josh Burkman (Pictures) a few months ago, but Fioravanti has a few explanations.
"I was coming off an eight-month layoff for the Cummo fight, but I don't know what happened," he reflected. "I felt comfortable in there, but he stunned me in the first couple seconds. My game plan was to take him down and try to ground-and-pound him out and try to finish it. But Luke's a tough guy. He took the punishment and defended well. If I would have been able to get the submission, I would have taken it, but he's very tough. I think the eight-month layoff affected me and I actually tore my calf muscle in that fight, and that probably had a little to do with the fight not being great."
Still, injury and layoff aside, restless fans are a brutal bunch. They let Fioravanti hear it, as they do with every fighter who doesn't live up to their occasionally unrealistic expectations.
"What people don't realize is how your nerves are when you're walking up to the cage or when you get inside that cage," Fioravanti explained about the marathon of emotions that course through a fighter's psyche come fight time. "And when that bell sounds, it's kind of like your instincts just take over. Yeah, you can hear the boos and stuff like that, but you should really only be concerned about yourself. Of course you want to go out there and finish the fight and excite the crowd, but sometimes because of the situation in the cage, you don't want to push the pace too much and make a mistake or get caught by something you normally wouldn't. If you listen to the crowd and press the issue, it might give the other guy the advantage. There is a strategy, but sometimes you just have to [tune out] the crowd."
Thankfully for the former Marine and veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, America is the land of second chances. Come Saturday night Fioravanti will have not only a chance to eradicate the foul taste of a fan unfriendly win but also to prove to the cynics that he's a legitimate threat in his weight class.
He knows he's a massive underdog against Sanchez. But in the same sense, he fully grasps the notion of how monumental a victory over the first TUF champion would be and what it would do for his career.
"It will be huge," Fioravanti stressed. "Winning this fight is going to project me farther up the ladder, and it's going to turn a lot of heads in the UFC and the fans. I'm not looking past this fight at all, and the UFC hasn't said that if I beat Diego, that I'll get something huge next. For all I know they could just be thinking this is a warm-up fight for Diego, just like his last one, and they have no plans on me winning. They asked if I wanted the fight and I said yeah because I'll fight anybody and because I know he's beatable."
But to topple the mighty Sanchez, a once-undefeated torrent of fury and determination, the American Top Team fighter must play his cards wisely and not make too many mistakes. He knows he must make Sanchez fight his fight and not the other way around.
"I know I can beat the guy," Fioravanti said matter-of-factly. "I hit harder and I think I have the better standup, so I know I have to keep it on the feet. I know exactly what he's going to do, too. He will come out and he might throw one punch or even stand a little bit, but then he'll try and bring the fight to the ground and work his ground-and-pound. That's his game. That's what he's really good at. I just gotta work on my takedown defense and rely on my power and my stand-up, and we'll see how the fight goes from there."
Fioravanti may be in the minority in his belief that he'll shock the world by halting Sanchez's rise back up the 170-pound ladder. But if he can replicate the perfect game plan concocted for him by teammates Ricardo Liborio (Pictures), Marcus Aurelio and a plethora of top NCAA wrestlers, he might just pull it off.
Chris Leben (Pictures), a murderous puncher, was supposed to obliterate the Floridian inside a few minutes.
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Since then he has seen ups and downs, with big wins sandwiched between disheartening losses. Now, much like his April 2006 showdown with Leben, Fioravanti is supposed to help showcase another popular veteran of "The Ultimate Fighter" in Diego Sanchez (Pictures).
"It doesn't really bother me that people seem to [overlook] me,
because like I said, it motivates me," Fioravanti said. "I think a
lot of people are, and they think he's just going to come in and
steamroll me and beat me up. I'm glad I'm the underdog because
there's really not much pressure on me."
Message boards have lit up in recent days with fans discussing how quickly Sanchez will dispose of Fioravanti. Some figure it will take Sanchez a minute to slam him to the ground and then another minute before he bombards Fioravanti with strikes. Some think Sanchez will submit him, and others believe "Nightmare" will simply knock him cold.
"It makes me train harder, and for this fight, I have trained harder than I ever have before in my career because I want to go out there and prove people wrong," Fioravanti said. "Of course I want to get that respect, but that respect has to be earned. Of course I think he's a good fighter. He's really tough and he's exceptionally good on the ground. He's a top-10 welterweight, but I do think he might be overlooking this fight, you know? A win against him would turn a lot of heads."
Though Fioravanti has strung together a two-fight winning streak, he's quickly become one of the most overlooked fighters on the circuit. He trains with a prominent core of professionals in Florida at American Top Team, but it still seems that many people cast him aside as a viable threat at 170 pounds mainly because his last fight wasn't exactly aesthetically pleasing.
Or in Fioravanti's words: "It f---ing sucked. It was not great."
He won a unanimous decision over Luke Cummo (Pictures) in March at UFC 82, but it was one of those performances that might have damaged his stock more than a loss would have. The situation is similar to what fellow welterweight Mike Swick (Pictures) faced after his encounter with Josh Burkman (Pictures) a few months ago, but Fioravanti has a few explanations.
"I was coming off an eight-month layoff for the Cummo fight, but I don't know what happened," he reflected. "I felt comfortable in there, but he stunned me in the first couple seconds. My game plan was to take him down and try to ground-and-pound him out and try to finish it. But Luke's a tough guy. He took the punishment and defended well. If I would have been able to get the submission, I would have taken it, but he's very tough. I think the eight-month layoff affected me and I actually tore my calf muscle in that fight, and that probably had a little to do with the fight not being great."
Still, injury and layoff aside, restless fans are a brutal bunch. They let Fioravanti hear it, as they do with every fighter who doesn't live up to their occasionally unrealistic expectations.
"What people don't realize is how your nerves are when you're walking up to the cage or when you get inside that cage," Fioravanti explained about the marathon of emotions that course through a fighter's psyche come fight time. "And when that bell sounds, it's kind of like your instincts just take over. Yeah, you can hear the boos and stuff like that, but you should really only be concerned about yourself. Of course you want to go out there and finish the fight and excite the crowd, but sometimes because of the situation in the cage, you don't want to push the pace too much and make a mistake or get caught by something you normally wouldn't. If you listen to the crowd and press the issue, it might give the other guy the advantage. There is a strategy, but sometimes you just have to [tune out] the crowd."
Thankfully for the former Marine and veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, America is the land of second chances. Come Saturday night Fioravanti will have not only a chance to eradicate the foul taste of a fan unfriendly win but also to prove to the cynics that he's a legitimate threat in his weight class.
He knows he's a massive underdog against Sanchez. But in the same sense, he fully grasps the notion of how monumental a victory over the first TUF champion would be and what it would do for his career.
"It will be huge," Fioravanti stressed. "Winning this fight is going to project me farther up the ladder, and it's going to turn a lot of heads in the UFC and the fans. I'm not looking past this fight at all, and the UFC hasn't said that if I beat Diego, that I'll get something huge next. For all I know they could just be thinking this is a warm-up fight for Diego, just like his last one, and they have no plans on me winning. They asked if I wanted the fight and I said yeah because I'll fight anybody and because I know he's beatable."
But to topple the mighty Sanchez, a once-undefeated torrent of fury and determination, the American Top Team fighter must play his cards wisely and not make too many mistakes. He knows he must make Sanchez fight his fight and not the other way around.
"I know I can beat the guy," Fioravanti said matter-of-factly. "I hit harder and I think I have the better standup, so I know I have to keep it on the feet. I know exactly what he's going to do, too. He will come out and he might throw one punch or even stand a little bit, but then he'll try and bring the fight to the ground and work his ground-and-pound. That's his game. That's what he's really good at. I just gotta work on my takedown defense and rely on my power and my stand-up, and we'll see how the fight goes from there."
Fioravanti may be in the minority in his belief that he'll shock the world by halting Sanchez's rise back up the 170-pound ladder. But if he can replicate the perfect game plan concocted for him by teammates Ricardo Liborio (Pictures), Marcus Aurelio and a plethora of top NCAA wrestlers, he might just pull it off.
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