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Check out Bloody Elbow’s interview with UFC welterweight, Max Griffin, before his UFC 248 PPV main card matchup with Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira.
UFC 248 goes down this Saturday, March 7th, from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Opening up the PPV portion of the main card will be a welterweight tilt between action fighters Max “Pain” Griffin and Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira. The 15-7 Griffin is looking to get back into the win column after dropping his last match to Alex Morono, and the 20-8-1 Oliveira is trying to snap a three-fight losing skid.
Bloody Elbow caught up with Griffin, who has found a passion in motivating the youth through public speaking. The Sacramento based fighter explains how excited he is to fight on the UFC 248 PPV card, and what it could potentially do for his career. He also mentions how he believes Oliveira diminishes quickly in his fights, so he’s looking to push the pace to get the victory. Griffin has been more willing to wrestle in his recent fights, and now sees that as a weapon to couple with his striking and strong gas tank.
- I see you’re still going around speaking to the youth. I really admire that sort of thing. Has that become a passion of yours?
“Yeah, it’s always been a passion, but I feel like before I didn’t have, I’d say the reach I have now. I’m getting a lot of momentum by doing it. I go to a school and the next school sees. It’s becoming more comfortable for me. I thoroughly enjoy it. It makes me happy, and the kids love it. They’ll sit down and be quiet and listen. It goes a long way. Self confidence and following your dreams. There’s no work like hard work. You got to pass it forward and I love it.”
- Now you’re facing Cowboy Oliveira and you’ll be kicking of the UFC 248 PPV main card. What does it mean to you be on the biggest possible UFC platform?
“It’s just so great. It’s what I want. It’s what I want. I know Cowboy was supposed to fight Mickey Gall in Norfolk or something.. but that fight just got scrapped. Then they called me and I jumped out of my bed dancing when I heard. My last two fights I wasn’t too excited for. Not that I’m not excited to fight, but it was Zelim [Imadaev], which I don’t like, and then Alex Morono, which he’s a good fighter but he’s not really known. Nobody knows who he is really, but everybody knows Cowboy. Everybody is excited. Dana [White] and Sean [Shelby] know what they’re doing, especially with putting this on the main card.”
- You’ve always been an action fighter. You like to stand and bang it out, but recently you’ve been a lot more willing to wrestle. How would you describe your wrestling from when you first came into the UFC to where it is now?
“I used to get wrestl-ed haha, now I’m wrestl-ing. I found out last month that I had the second most takedowns in the UFC, tied with Curtis Blaydes with 12 for 2019. For me, that was by accident. I saw that and was lie ‘I didn’t even wrestle in high school. I didn’t even wrestle in college.’ To do that by mistake, my strengths are kind of coming into my own. I used to be a striker when I first started, but now I’m a lot more mixed. If it’s a strength, then I got to start using it. I don’t think anyone stuffed really any of my takedowns. I have a pretty high success rate, and that’s by mistake. I had the most in the welterweight division last year. So it’s like hold on, he can wrestle. So I’m going to start wrestling more, mixing it in more. It’s a threat now.”
- Have you been working on using your striking to set up the wrestling and vice versa?
“Yes. Mixing that with my crazy gas tank. I have a lot of takeaways from my Morono fight. I won that fight except for 40-seconds. He kicked me in the head. Usually when that happens, you’re zapped. You’re done. I jogged to the corner and my coaches were like, ‘Oh you’re good.’ Then I went out and steamrolled him in the third round, wasn’t tired at all. I didn’t take a heavy breath. That’s the first fight that I wasn’t fatigued at all. At all! If anything, I was warming up more. So what I learned through that and the UFC PI, is that my pace is unmatched.”
- Cowboy is a pretty fast starter, but tends to fade the longer the fight goes on. After studying tape, what are some of the things you’re looking for out there?
“He’s a crazy guy at first, but he diminishes pretty quick. His cardio’s not the best. I’m going to put it on him. He doesn’t like pressure. He needs space to do all his stuff and move around. He needs that space and I’m not going to give it to him. I’m going to put the pace on him; I’m going to put the pressure on him. I’m going to make it a fight-fight. Make him fight where I want to fight… I want to sprint for 15-minutes.”
- Oliveira is on a three-fight losing streak. Do you think that makes him more dangerous out there?
“I do. I do. He’s going to try and kill me and save his contract, but he can’t. I’m ready to go. I’m just so ready to go. I’ve been ready for four months, and I’m just in better shape now. I was 176 a couple of days ago, so I’m in shape-shape.”
- Do you think this fight’s going to go the distance?
“No. Not at all. No. Impossible. Nothing’s impossible, but no. My pace. Even just the pace alone. I’m going to outwork him. Period.”
- What are you looking to accomplish in the year 2020?
“To be on the main card, kicking off the main card on a pay-per-view of this magnitude, “Stylebender” vs. Yoel Romero. Bro! This very well could lead to a co-main somewhere, a main, getting me a ranked guy, an ass kicker. That’s what I want. That’s 2020 baby!”