For former World Extreme Champion lightweight title holder Jamie Varner (16-4-1) it’s been a bit of a tough year since losing his title to Ben Henderson last January.
Varner has fought three times and is just 0-2-1 so far in 2010 but is looking to finish the year, and his last fight under the WEC banner, in a big way by defeating Shane Roller at the upcoming WEC 53 event.
The former WEC champ is almost certainly fighting for his job when he faces Roller, as a loss third loss this year would not see him brought over to the UFC with the impending merger set to take place.
Varner took a long hard look at this past year, going back to the basics for this fight with Roller and is prepared to win on his feet, or on the ground.
Before I was more dynamic; you didn’t know whether I was going to take you down, smash you on the ground or knock you out on the feet. You didn’t know if I was going to come at you with punches, kicks and knees or with a hard double leg and dump you on your head. But I got focused on wrestling defense and striking so I kind of got away from my wrestling offense and pretty much just turned into a pure striker. Going into that fight with Cowboy I felt I was a better striker than Cowboy, with more power, and I didn’t give his wrestling or takedowns any respect. So I went into that fight as a one-trick pony, just trying to stand up and knock opponents out. Cowboy was able to exploit me, man, and keep me on my heels, shoot on me and take me down. He took me down three times in that fight. I’ve never been taken down and held down, ever in my career. And there’s only been one guy that was able to do that … So it really showed me that I’ve got to get back to my roots, back to what made me who I was and that is wrestling and boxing. So I added a lot more wrestling, a lot more technique offensively and defensively, and using my wrestling to set up my punches. That’s probably the biggest change that I’ve made, not being so stubborn to try and win in one area. I’m going to win this fight no matter what happens. I’m prepared to win this fight off back, on my feet or on top.
Check out the full interview with the former WEC lightweight champ at WEC.tv.