Gegard Mousasi: I Should Have Had A Better Gameplan For Machida

In his short time with the UFC Gegard Mousasi has accomplished more than 90% of the other fighters who have entered the Octagon before him.

The former Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion has already headlined two UFC events and fought in a title eliminator against Lyoto Machida. He came up short against “The Dragon” in February and lost his chance to fight for a UFC title.

In a recent interview with BloodyElbow.com the 28-year old dissected his loss to Machida and he believes it was his gameplan which let him down:

“I should have had a better gameplan and been able to adapt better,” he said. “I think those were my big problems. I didn’t adapt at all. I just continued to fight the same way. I’ve been working on that a great deal for this fight coming up.”

The fight coming up is against “The Filipino Wrecking Machine” and is just a few hours away. The middleweights will throw it down in the main event of UFC Fight Night 41 and Mousasi thinks it’s the perfect fight for him.

“”I really think Mark Munoz is going to be a better fight for me because he really comes to fight and always tries to finish. If he is on the ground, his ground and pound is the direction he takes it. He doesn’t just lay on people. Machida was a much more strategic fighter whereas Mark is ‘in your face’ and brawling style.”

Munoz is certainly one of the most aggressive fighters in the division and a totally different puzzle than Machida. However, “The Dreamcatcher” is confident he will be able to take his second win inside the Octagon.

In the interview, Mousasi also spoke about his current pay scale and how that carried over from his previous Strikeforce contract. According, to the former middleweight and light-heavyweight Dream champion, he’s making almost the same amount of money now as he was in Strikeforce.

“I make pretty much the same amount of money because my Strikeforce contract was carried over to the UFC. When I came over to the UFC, my sponsor money actually went up. For me, that’s a big thing, because as a fighter, you have to pay taxes, trainers, this, that…things add up. About half of the money is gone as soon as you get it.

I’m very comfortable and happy with what I’m getting paid. I really can’t complain. Now if I can get that title, it would be the cranberry on the pie for me.“

Mousasi will meet Munoz later on today, a win should be enough to get him back in the title picture. Do you think he can do it?