Lightweight Tony Martin scored his second victory in the UFC last weekend at UFC on FOX 18 as he defeated Felipe Olivieri by rear-naked choke in the second round. It was his eighth career submission victory and it was his first win since UFC 179 against Fabricio Camoes.
A couple of days have passed since Martin (10-3) secured the victory and of course, he has gone back and watch the fight multiple times. While every fighter will always look at the negatives of the fight over the positives, Martin does know there were several positive things he did accomplish in the fight.
“The biggest positive was that I adjusted my game plan a little bit in the middle of the fight and was able to execute it,” Martin told The MMA Report. “It was nice to go into the second round and kind of get a grove on the feet. Get comfortable in my standup and get comfortable kind of being in the pocket with a very high level striker and out striking him. That was the biggest positive that I took from it and the biggest negative was I took a lot of leg kicks.”
“It was odd though,” he continued. “I could not really feel them in the fight. They were not stopping my movement I feel like. But he was definitely racking the points up. I feel the legs kick now. I did not feel them at the time. It was looking good for the judges so that is definitely a big thing I am going after in this next camp. Start changing that up.”
Both of Martin’s wins in the UFC have come by submission, as he defeated Camoes by kimura submission back in 2014. Throughout his MMA career, Martin has scored submission victories by various techniques, but where does the submission over Olivieri rank?
“I think it was my most gratifying submission just because of the fact that it came in the third round when I feel like I lost the first round. I feel like I easily won the second round and that is something I have not done in the UFC. I have not gone into the UFC and won a second round yet and I have won all of the first rounds up to this point. Then I lost the first round now, but then you see how I reacted to the adversity this time.”
“I came out and showed my true potential of changing a game plan in the middle of the fight and executed my game plan,” he continued. “Then going back to my original game plan to use my striking to set up my takedowns and then to finish the fight the way that I did was fairly impressive with another Brazilian black belt. It was very gratifying and to this point, I would say it’s my best submission, but there are a lot of submissions that I have left that no one has even seen with my submission game. I think I am going to start knocking people out here pretty soon.”
When it comes to what is next for the UFC lightweight, Martin is not calling anyone out in the division. All he wants is a full training camp and believes that he can beat anyone in the division. He plans to return the gym next week and is hopeful to step back into the octagon in around twelve weeks.