Vicente Luque Used Lessons Learned from ‘Wonderboy’ Loss in Victory Over Woodley

Vicente Luque has been quietly working his way up the ladder of the UFC’s welterweight division, winning nine of his 10 Octagon appearances since October 2017.

The Cerrado MMA product earned his most high-profile victory to date in the UFC 260 co-main event, as he submitted former 170-pound champion Tyron Woodley with a brabo choke in the opening stanza on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Woodley, who had been tentative during a three-bout skid heading into the matchup with Luque, pressed the action from the outset, attacking his opponent with heavy right hands while looking to secure takedowns.

“I have a tendency to bring the best out of my opponents every single time, so I’ve gotten used to not underestimating anybody and being ready for their best versions,” Luque said. “That’s what we saw tonight. I thought Woodley was much more aggressive than in his last fights, actually connected a good right hand on me. Once I realized that that was going to be the fight, I was like, ‘OK, let’s do it.’ I’m used to this. This is my home. War is what I like. It was great and I got a big win.”

Though Woodley did get Luque’s attention with one of his overhand rights, it was the Brazilian’s power that turned the tide, as he staggered his foe with a counter right and swarmed with offense from there. He then drove a reeling Woodley to the canvas and locked in the fight-ending maneuver.

“Once he hit me and I lost a little bit of my balance I was seeing three of him, but I kind of knew that he was going to come aggressively to try to knock me out,” Luque said. “That’s one of the best moments to counter an opponent, so I felt like, let me just stand my ground, look for the shot and once he throws it, I’m going to throw at the same time. It worked out. He threw an overhand, I ducked my head and hit him with my right hand. That was the first one that stunned him and after that, I stunned him with a few other shots and eventually got him to the ground. I thought I was going to get the knockout, but I saw that submission and I went for it.

“I went for that submission because I saw the opening and also I realized that he has a chin. I hit him hard. I know that I hit hard, I know that I put people out and he wasn’t going out that easily, so I said, ‘Let me go for the submission’. I know it is a strong one of mine, I felt like it was really in deep. He couldn’t get out of it and had to tap.”

The last time Luque was on a stage of similar magnitude, he faltered in a unanimous decision loss to Stephen Thompson at UFC 244. The Cerrado MMA product says he learned valuable lessons from that defeat that he was able to apply against Woodley.

“In the ‘Wonderboy’ fight, that was my first big name opponent, a big stage, it was right before another big fight… I kind of was like a little bit nervous,” Luque said. “That’s normal, I’m nervous every single fight, but in that one, during the fight, I kind of let the nerves take me and got over excited, so I started overcommitting on my shots and just gave a lot of openings for ‘Wonderboy.’

“After that loss, I kind of realized that at this high level we cannot make many mistakes. The guy that makes more mistakes is going to pay for it. I have to stick to the plan and be intelligent. That’s what I did in this fight. Even though it was a big opponent, a former champion, and he did put me in a hard spot at that moment, I kept my cool. I knew what I had to do and I worked through it and got the finish. So I think that ‘Wonderboy’ fight helped me a lot.”

In the immediate future, Luque plans on returning home to be with his wife as she prepares to give birth to his first son. But down the road, Luque believes he has earned a seat at the table with the welterweight division’s biggest names — as evidenced by his post-fight callout of Nate Diaz.

“After that, I’m looking at the top of the division. I think a win like this over a former champion gives me a chance at those top 5 opponents,” he said. “If nothing works out and Diaz wants to come back, I think that that’s a great fight. I would love to face Nate Diaz. I think his style is awesome, I’ve always enjoyed his style. I think it would be a great matchup.”