This one meant slightly bit extra to Vicente
Luque.
After struggling a mind bleed following his loss to Geoff Neal in
August 2022, Luque was sidelined for a yr earlier than returning to the
Octagon at
UFC on ESPN 51, the place he earned a unanimous choice triumph
towards Rafael dos
Anjos in Saturday’s essential occasion on the UFC Apex in Las
Vegas.
“It was like having essentially the most superb win for me, simply due to
all the things,” Luque stated on the ESPN+ post-fight present. “So many
modifications in my life. I moved to Florida, moved my household, a brand new method
of life and simply coaching and going by means of the harm. On the
starting, not figuring out if I used to be ever going to have the ability to do that
once more after which I bought cleared. Then going by means of the coaching camp,
I’m going to battle a legend like Rafael. It’s a particular win.
“I really feel blessed. I really feel superb. Now it’s like all the selections
that have been taken and everyone that was round to assist me, we did
the precise strikes and we’re victorious. That’s stunning.”
Luque, who has completed 13 opponents in UFC competitors, adopted a
totally different method towards dos Anjos. He landed a profession finest eight
takedowns and racked up 12:01 of management time in a grinding win
over the previous light-weight champion. Luque stated he felt just like the
larger, stronger fighter within the cage.
“Kamaru [Usman] informed me ‘you’re going to be the larger man in
there, you’re going to be stronger since you at all times fought at
170,’” Luque stated. “That’s what I felt in there. As soon as he shot, I
stuffed it, I circled and I used to be placing my weight on him and
I might really feel he had do a number of energy to maneuver me and I used to be simply
perhaps 70 p.c controlling him so I might preserve some power
however nonetheless put strain on him, throw the pictures.”
Luque additionally admitted to feeling some trepidation relating to how his
physique would possibly react to a battle following his well being scare. As soon as the
battle bought going, these issues have been alleviated.
“There was one other facet of me that was nervous,” Luque stated. “Like
earlier than I took these pictures, I didn’t understand how I used to be going to be in a
battle. I took these pictures and OK, you’re good. That’s why you’re
right here, and also you’re able to go.”
