After three straight losses, Jimi Manuwa knows the importance of Saturday's fight with Aleksandar Rakic. However, job security isn't one of his concerns.
Speaking with ESPN's Marc Raimondi, 'Poster Boy' explained why. "[The UFC] usually cut people after two or three losses. But my fighting speaks for itself. And it is what it is. They know that if I lose, I go out on my shield."
That was certainly the case in Manuwa's last fight, taking on Thiago Santos at UFC 231. The pair of hard-hitting Light Heavyweights put on a simply enthralling affair, trading blows until early in Round 2, Santos scored the finish. While he didn't leave the octagon a victor that night though, Manuwa's perception is right, his fighting indeed spoke for itself.
At UFC Stockholm, Manuwa enters the betting underdog, with Rakic in the midst of an eleven fight win streak. However, his game-plan won't shift much because in truth, the chaos of those recent fights was unplanned to begin with. "That's just my natural killer instinct," Manuwa explained.
"You hit me, I hit you back harder. I've gotta take a step back from it. It's easy to say when you're on the outside and when you're the coach or for people to say, 'Oh, you should have done this, you should have done that.' But when you're in there in front of thousands of people and you get hit and you want to win the fight, it's totally different."
Considering that, it's hard to be certain of much when Manuwa steps foot in the octagon. Well, other than the entertainment value of course. "There's not one boring fight. I don't go to get knocked out or go and say, 'Oh, I'm gonna have a shootout with this fight or whatever.' That is the way I fight. I go to knock you out. And that's it."
For ESPN's full interview piece with Manuwa, click here.
UFC Fight Night Stockholm takes place this Saturday night at the Ericsson Globe. Fightful will have live coverage for the event and its full card can be found below:
Main Card (ESPN+ - 1 pm ET)
Alexander Gustafsson (18-5) vs. Anthony Smith (31-14)
Volkan Oezdemir (15-4) vs. Ilir Latifi (14-6, 1NC)
Jimi Manuwa (17-5) vs. Aleksandar Rakic (11-1)
Makwan Amirkhani (14-3) vs. Chris Fishgold (18-2-1)
Damir Hadzovic (13-4) vs. Christos Giagos (16-7)
Daniel Teymur (6-3) vs. Jo Sung-Bin (9-0)
Prelims (ESPN+ - 10 am ET)
Tonya Evinger (19-7, 1NC) vs. Lina Lansberg (8-4)
Leonardo Santos (16-3-1) vs. Stevie Ray (22-8)
Nick Hein (14-4, 1NC) vs. Frank Camacho (21-7)
Bea Malecki (2-0) vs. Eduarda Santana (3-0)
Devin Clark (9-3) vs. Darko Stosic (13-1)
Joel Alvarez (15-2) vs. Danilo Belluardo (12-3)
