Krzysztof Soszynski (18-9 MMA, 3-1 UFC) will be making his return to the octagon at UFC 110 on February 20 in Sydney, Australia. “The Polish Experiment” suffered a unanimous decision loss to Brandon Vera in his last fight and will be looking to bounce back against Stephan Bonnar (11-6 MMA,5-5 UFC) in the land down under. Soszynski spoke to Ringside Report about his upcoming trip to Australia, “it’s my first time heading over there. The cool thing about it is I have a lot of family there, there’s a lot of Soszynskis in Australia that are gonna be at the show,” he said.
Soszynski submitted Brian Stann in April of 2007, knocked out Andre Gusmao in May before losing to Brandon Vera in August and has benefited from more preparation time for this fight. “The best part about this training camp is I actually have fourteen weeks to get ready for this fight. The last two fights I’ve had were basically short notice fights. One was three weeks for Andre Gusmao and Brandon Vera I only had a five week camp.” Soszynski decided to train with former opponent, Brandon Vera, at Alliance MMA but not because of the recent loss, “Brandon Vera and I have trained in the past. When I first came out to California, I had the chance to train with Eddie Bravo at 10th Planet. Brandon Vera was there at the time so I had a chance to roll with him, grapple with him and train with him a little bit, “ Soszynski said. “We became friends, we’ve known each other. We talk to each other every time we see each other. You know it happened that we had to fight each other. I’ve always wanted to train with him.” Brandon Vera is not the only UFC fighter that Soszynski is training with at Alliance, “Phil Davis was there (5-0 MMA 1-0 UFC), Joey Beltran (11-3 MMA, 1-0 UFC), Travis Browne (7-0 MMA) is there. We have a great group of guys working together hard and helping each other out.”
Soszynski has been doing more than training in the gym to prepare for Stephan Bonnar. He has also been studying his opponent, “I had the time to watch a lot of tape and basically study his last two fights. I’m not Jon Jones, I’m not the 6’6 or 6’7 guy with the long reach who’s super athletic. I’m not the Coleman, who’s built like a truck who is a great wrestler that will take you down,hold you, and ground and pound you. I’m kind of in-between there.” Soszynski will be looking to use a different approach against Bonnar,”I’m able to look at his videos. Study him well and see if I can pick him apart by using a little bit of my power and a little bit of my speed.”
Though Soszynski says he does not choose nor request any opponents, he would like to test himself against one UFC light-heavyweight in particular. “I would love to fight someone like Keith Jardine.” “I’ve watched Keith Jardine, I kind of followed his career. It kind of reminds me of my career.” “I think it would be a fun fight….to test my skill and to see where I am. He’s kind of like the gatekeeper to the top-ten.” “It’s tough to get past him, but that could be my break into the top-ten division.”
Krzysztof Soszynski may not ever fight Keith Jardine in the cage but he will be able to make it happen in the next UFC video game, UFC: Undisputed 2010. “I am in the game, which my son is very excited about (laughs). He’s stoked about the fact that his dad’s in the video game. It’s pretty crazy, I never thought I would be in a video game.” “Honestly, I don’t play too many video games but I will definitely pick this one up.”
Soszynski knows that his next task will be no game and Stephan Bonnar will be a challenge, “I’m going to have somebody that’s going to come at me swinging hard, being aggressive and I’m going to be doing the same thing.” Whatever the outcome at UFC 110 Soszynski promises, “a really fun, tough battle between two guys that are out there doing it.”
Tune in to Ringside Report Radio at a special time of 9pm this Thursday to hear the entire interview with Krzysztof Soszynski or check back on the web site for the podcast version.
by David Simon (quotes courtesy of Ringside Report Radio)
