I like Tim Boetsch for a bunch of reasons, really, but the main thing I enjoy about him is that he’s a direct talker. By that, I mean that if you ask him a question, he’s going to give you a straight answer. He doesn’t dance around questions and he doesn’t give the standard fighter-speak boilerplate response of “I just want to compete and I’ll fight whoever the UFC puts in front of me.”
Boetsch scored the biggest win of his career over Hector Lombard last Saturday night at UFC 149. Does that make him a contender? He certainly has a strong case. He’s 4-0 at middleweight, and his last two wins (Lombard and Yushin Okami) were against title contenders.
But the top of the middleweight division is packed. Chris Weidman, Brian Stann, Alan Belcher and Michael Bisping are all laying claim to the contender’s throne and there’s a chance that Rashad Evans could drop down to middleweight and bypass all of them. Boetsch, despite his two big previous wins, is on the outside looking in.
But Boetsch isn’t in a hurry, telling Inside MMA on Monday night that all he has to do is keep up his winning ways and he’ll eventually get a title shot:
For me, when a guy runs his mouth and there’s high expectations, it’s part of fighting. I’ve find that I’m kind of the opposite of that. I wanna perform, and maybe that’s why I’m not on the radar, and everybody’s not talking about me. But, if I beat enough people, it’s gonna be hard to ignore me, and it’s gonna be hard to deny me that title shot.
I’m not sure who they’re gonna put in front of me, after a win over Hector, after a win over Okami, but whoever they put in front of me, next, I’ll get the win. I think I match up great (with Anderson Silva). He struggles with wrestlers, and I’m a wrestler that also can do a lot of damage with my fists and kicks and submissions. I haven’t been showing my submission game much, but we’ll save that for the world championship. If I need to submit Anderson Silva, I know I can.
I’m not sure about the idea of Boetsch submitting Anderson Silva. I mean, anything can happen in MMA, and it often does. But attempting to submit Silva doesn’t seem like the best kind of game plan for Boetsch to focus on.
But we’re a long way from even discussing game plans at this point. Boetsch will need one more big win to be considered for a title shot, so what’s next for the burly middleweight? Vitor Belfort wants to fight Weidman, but Weidman doesn’t seem to like that idea very much. Belcher wants to fight Belfort, and his camp is attempting to goad the Brazilian into accepting the fight. And Bisping and Stann are scheduled to square off in September.
One of these guys is going to be left out in the cold, and they’ll need an opponent. To me, Boetsch taking on any of those top names makes sense.
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