KIDWCKED
11-13-2010, 02:10 AM
c/p from TSN by the CanadienPress.
Croatian Goran Reljic is fighting on his home continent at UFC 122 but Canadian light-heavyweight Krzysztof (The Polish Experiment) Soszynski expects some cheers of his own when the two meet Saturday.
"Only my immediate family left Poland to move to Canada -- my mum, my dad, my brother and I," said Soszynski, before listing off a string of relatives back in the old country.
The Canadian fighter is fluent in Polish and the UFC has already started marketing him to Polish media.
"MMA's growing really big in Poland right now," he said.
Soszynski (20-11-1) is coming off a second-round TKO loss at UFC 116 to Stephan Bonnar. The Canadian beat Bonnar the fight before at UFC 110, when a cut sidelined the American in the third round.
The most recent bout earned both men a US$75,000 bonus for fight of the night.
Soszynski texted UFC matchmaker Joe Silva once he had recovered from the fight to let him know he was ready. And he mentioned an interest in going to Germany, because of its proximity to Poland.
"He liked the idea and here we are," Soszynski said.
Reljic (6-3) needs a win after back-to-back losses to Kendall Grove and C.B. Dollaway.
"That's what's going to makes him so dangerous, that he is desperate," Soszynski said of the Croat, who is moving up from middleweight.
Soszynski says he learned a valuable lesson from the second Bonnar fight after his opponent told him later: "He basically told me I had him beat in the first round. I just let him back into the fight."
Bonnar told him there was about 45 seconds in that first round where he didn't know where he was.
Soszynski says his mistake was to try to take Bonnar down to the ground after hurting him.
"I should have just kept going with my strikes," he said.
The fight turned in the second round after Bonnar nailed him with a knee.
"For the first time ever, it felt like my whole body went numb for about two, three seconds and then everything was blurry up until he stopped punching me," Soszynski said.
"He didn't let me recover. I let him recover and that's what happened," he added.
Croatian Goran Reljic is fighting on his home continent at UFC 122 but Canadian light-heavyweight Krzysztof (The Polish Experiment) Soszynski expects some cheers of his own when the two meet Saturday.
"Only my immediate family left Poland to move to Canada -- my mum, my dad, my brother and I," said Soszynski, before listing off a string of relatives back in the old country.
The Canadian fighter is fluent in Polish and the UFC has already started marketing him to Polish media.
"MMA's growing really big in Poland right now," he said.
Soszynski (20-11-1) is coming off a second-round TKO loss at UFC 116 to Stephan Bonnar. The Canadian beat Bonnar the fight before at UFC 110, when a cut sidelined the American in the third round.
The most recent bout earned both men a US$75,000 bonus for fight of the night.
Soszynski texted UFC matchmaker Joe Silva once he had recovered from the fight to let him know he was ready. And he mentioned an interest in going to Germany, because of its proximity to Poland.
"He liked the idea and here we are," Soszynski said.
Reljic (6-3) needs a win after back-to-back losses to Kendall Grove and C.B. Dollaway.
"That's what's going to makes him so dangerous, that he is desperate," Soszynski said of the Croat, who is moving up from middleweight.
Soszynski says he learned a valuable lesson from the second Bonnar fight after his opponent told him later: "He basically told me I had him beat in the first round. I just let him back into the fight."
Bonnar told him there was about 45 seconds in that first round where he didn't know where he was.
Soszynski says his mistake was to try to take Bonnar down to the ground after hurting him.
"I should have just kept going with my strikes," he said.
The fight turned in the second round after Bonnar nailed him with a knee.
"For the first time ever, it felt like my whole body went numb for about two, three seconds and then everything was blurry up until he stopped punching me," Soszynski said.
"He didn't let me recover. I let him recover and that's what happened," he added.