In regards to his second round TKO loss to Curtis Millender at LFA 30 this past January, welterweight Nick Barnes feels that complacency lead to the finish.
Having initially gone into the bout wanting to grapple with Millender, Barnes felt he was doing well enough standing to want to keep the fight on the feet, which heralded the end of the fight.
“With Curtis my downfall in that fight started happening when I got a little too comfortable with my stand-up,” Barnes told MMAWeekly.com.
“My whole game plan going into that was taking him down and wearing him out and then use an opening to my advantage. Going into the second round instead of going for the takedown I wanted to stand up a little longer, and he found a hole in my stand-up and got me with that counter and put me out.”
In addition to working on the technical mistake Barnes made which created the opening that Millender took advantage of, he spent the last six months working on pressing the fight instead of sitting back when he has an advantage.
“There was a hole in stand-up, so I’ve definitely worked on that,” said Barnes. “But other than that, we’ve really worked on going into fights aggressive.
“Work on angling out, work on staying aggressive, and don’t let myself get too comfortable. If the fight looks like it’s going my way, don’t start relaxing, stay aggressive because in this game anything can happen. You might think you have the advantage, and the next thing they hit your button.”
Barnes (12-3) will look to rebound this Friday in Cabazon, California, when he takes on Erick Silva (19-9) in a 170-pound main event of LFA 45.
This article first appeared at News – MMAWeekly.com
