Pat Healy Refocused on Wrestling for Bout Against Jorge Masvidal
Pat Healy knows he’s not going to beat Jorge Masvidal on the feet.
Ahead of their lightweight bout Saturday at UFC on Fox 11, Healy joined the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show to discuss his plan to wrestle Masvidal, grind him and get the win.
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On whether the fight could be a grinder: “I certainly want to make it that way. I don’t think I can contend with him in a boxing match, so I certainly don’t want to make it that. I think I need to close the distance and kind of control the distance. The more time it’s in the clinch or on the ground, the better it is for me.”
On taking Masvidal to the ground: “He’s certainly not easy to get there, but it’s something I’ve been working very hard on doing. That’s kind of the biggest thing. I kind of thought, for some reason, in my last couple fights that [with] my wrestling, all the work I’ve put into it in the past would take care of it. I didn’t really work on my wrestling as much. For this fight, I’ve really been wrestling a lot and trying to get back into that grind, getting on a guy, making him feel my weight type of style.”
On whether he feels any pressure going into this fight: “Yeah, a little bit. Last year wasn’t exactly a great year for me, to say the least. I think it’s certainly motivated me a lot and it made me look at what I was doing in my last couple of fights and really think about what got me here. I kind of got away from that in my last couple of fights. I think that was kind of a big eye-opener to me.”
On getting away from his wrestling: “I was so caught up in working on, I think, my weaknesses that I just stopped working on my strengths. I don’t think you can really do that. I always was one of those guys that would see great wrestlers standing up and go, ‘What are they thinking? They should be wrestling more.’ And then I kind of became that guy my last two fights. It can be a hard realization to come to that you’re not doing what you’re supposed to. And you know what? Wrestling’s really hard. Getting in there and wrestling all the time, it’s tough. It’s a grind. You’ve got to really commit to it and set up the practices. Now we have a good wrestling program at Rose City FC, so that has certainly helped a lot.”
On Masvidal’s win over his brother, Ryan Healy: “It certainly motivates me. Me and my brother have never lost to the same person -- we’ve fought a few of the same guys -- and that’s something I want to keep. It’s kind of like I can come back and avenge the Healy name, I guess.”
Listen to the full interview (beginning at 35:52).
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