Maurice Greene steps back into the Octagon at UFC Fight Night Wichita, facing Jeff Hughes in a heavyweight division rematch.
A lot of people view Greene as primarily a striker because of the past experience in Glory kickboxing, but Greene says that coach Brock Larson has turned him into a jiu-jitsu expert as well.
“This fight, Brock Larson will be in my corner. Yes, (he’ll be there as well because) Tony Martin is fighting on the card. He wasn’t there last time because funny (story), Tony fought Saturday in Australia…I fought Friday. So he’s like ‘any other time Maurice, I’d be with you.’ He felt so bad, but it’s like you can’t have one of you’re guys go out of the country and not go with him. So he gets to be with me for the first time, I’m so excited. He is the reason why my jiu-jitsu is where it’s at right now, I was looking back at my record and it’s funny that I was in Glory and everybody’s like ‘Maurice, you’re a kickboxer.’ But if you look at my record, I’m six and two…I have five finishes and four of them are triangle chokes,” says Greene in an exclusive interview with Fightful’s James Lynch.
Greene does have the previously mentioned four wins by submission and one of those came in his UFC debut at the UFC Ultimate Fighter 28 Finale.
The fighter didn’t see his victory at the UFC Ultimate Fighter 28 Finale as anything monument, because Greene viewed the bout like a job interview more than anything else.
“Yes and no, I mean nothing really changed. You start to realize a couple of things, a lot of people think that when you get into the UFC…everything’s all peachy king, I did. After my wins, it was just like ‘man, is this how it feels?’ I didn’t feel that great after my win and I didn’t feel like I should have felt, I think part of it was just because I took that one as a job interview. They cut all the losers from what I hear, they cut all the losers. So that was a job interview, that was like ‘hey, lets see if he’s good enough, if he gets the win…we’ll give him a shot.’ This is my UFC debut, I didn’t get a Reebok fight kit last time…nothing said Maurice Green on it. This is my UFC debut, just like it is Jeff’s. Nothings really changed, I’m still chasing that dream. Still chasing it and it’s harder to stay in the UFC, I’m in the UFC and it’s harder to stay. I want to be something that’s cemented in history when I’m done, if I can help it,” says Greene.
UFC Fight Night Wichita takes place on Saturday, March 9 from the Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas with Derrick Lewis and Junior Dos Santos headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which streams live on ESPN+.
