Paul Craig’s UFC middleweight debut could not have gone better. Craig, a submission specialist, was faced with an elite grappler in Andre Muniz, and delivered a brutal beatdown, emerging victorious in the second round thanks to his vicious ground-and-pound. At the post-fight show, Craig made it clear that he wants to fight the best of the best in this new weight class.
“When the UFC offered me this fight, [it’s] the UFC, you don’t really get a chance to be like, ‘No, we don’t really want this fight. Can we have an easier fight?’
UFC Middleweight Paul Craig Calls Out Bo Nickal: “Nobody wants to fight him”
[I] want to fight in the top 15 because ultimately, if I can’t hang with them in the light heavyweight division, and I can’t hang in the other divisions, this comes to the end of my journey. My journey is about how far I can go and be an MMA champion. That’s what I want to do, and as we moved down, we wanted a top 15 opponent, and we got it.
Then everybody started saying, ‘He broke Jacare’s arm. He did the same to Eryk Anders. Maybe Paul’s jiu-jitsu isn’t as a good, because he’s just a wee guy from Scotland.’ A Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt from Brazil, who is a high-level grappler.
This isn’t grappling. This is MMA. What my coach told me was, ‘Don’t give him this gentleman’s agreement, oh, we’ll go for a submission and then spin and it’s a nice flow grapple.
Punish him! If you get on top, punish him and make him know this isn’t jiu-jitsu, this is MMA. This is middleweight in the UFC.’ And it definitely showed.
As a middleweight, I believe I made a statement, and striking-wise, I think I looked good.” Craig also called out one of the hottest prospects on the roster, rising star Bo Nickal.
“As a middleweight? I kind of like Bo Nickal as a fight. Nobody wants to fight him. But then if he takes me down, he better be good at passing guard, because I’m very good at retaining guard.
He’s a name. He’s a name and he can play into my game plan, where he gets in tight, takes me down, and it just fits me better.
That’s one of the things we knew Andre Muniz would do. He would take us down into guard, and that’s where I do my best work. If he puts me down on my back, then I’m able to scramble, look for these triangles, look for these armbars.”
