Rate it!

0 votes

Follow British welterweight Paul Kelly as he builds up to a UFC 95 fight against Troy Mandaloniz at London's O2 Arena on February 21.

Liverpool's Paul Kelly is coming off a submission loss to Marcus Davis at UFC 89, a first defeat in MMA which spoils his 7-0 record.

All-action Kelly, fighting out of Mike Bisping and Rampage Jackson's Wolfslair gym, is keen to put the disappointing defeat behind him and get his promising career back on track.

The Hawaiian-based 'Rude Boy' Mandaloniz returns to action for the first time in more than a year, following time off after he defeated Richie Hightower via first-round TKO in December 2007.

Paul will be keeping Eurosport-Yahoo! up-to-date with his preparations and thoughts in the build up to what should be an intriguing fight.

---

If I know Troy Mandaloniz, I don't think he has trained for this fight half as seriously as he should have done - and that is going to be a massive problem for him when he sees me across the ring in 10 days time.

I have spoken to Troy a few times and I have a lot of friends in America, and they all say the same thing: Troy just loves life too much. I'm not saying he's not tough and strong, but technically he is no genius on the ground and fitness wise, he is not even in the same league as me.

It has been 18 months since his last fight; that's a long time for any fighter, never mind one who perhaps doesn't train as hard as he should. I have heard that he put a lot of weight on and spent a lot of time chilling on the beach. How long he spent in the gym, I don't know.

Even before his time off, his groundwork wasn't that good - so what it's going to be like now after 18 months off, who knows? I know he trains with BJ Penn, but his jiu-jitsu is nowhere near black-belt level. I am better than him in every single area of this fight.

His record shows that he has a 50 per cent knockout rate - three KOs from six wins - so obviously he has some venom in his punches. But the fighters he beat were nowhere near the level I am, and he looks to have KO-ed those guys with single punches, and that's not going to happen with me.

I know that the longer the fight goes on, the worse it's going to be for him. I am going to come out crazy and show him in the first few seconds the pace I am ready to fight for all 15 minutes.

After two or three minutes, he's going to be wondering to himself: "When does this guy cool off? Is he ever going to burn out?" And after eight minutes, I am going to see that look in his eye that shows me he is confused and ready to quit.

I don't care about submissions. If I see the chance for an arm-bar or a rear naked choke, I am going to let it pass. It's not that I don't care about my submissions, but I feel like I have to redeem myself after my last fight.

In my last fight, the defeat against Marcus Davis, I let myself and my fans down and I owe them an exciting performance. I don't want a short fight or an early finish. I want to beat up Troy for 10 minutes and to leave him with some bumps and bruises - and the same goes for me.

The UFC is the holy grail of MMA and it needs exciting fighters, nothing else: fighters who leave all they have in the ring and go crazy for as long as they can.

I have a new baby girl to support, and so I am chasing the bonuses. If I don't get them, or even worse, if the UFC don't offer me a contract, then I am going to have to go out and get a job - and that's not for me. I am going nowhere.

Troy is going to have the worst night of his life because this fight means more to me than any other.

Paul was speaking to Alex Sharratt / Eurosport