ABU DHABI – [autotag]Mounir Lazzez[/autotag] beat Abdul Razak Alhassan with a unanimous decision Wednesday to open up the main card at UFC on ESPN 13 in Abu Dhabi.
Take a look inside the fight with Lazzez, who won for the third straight time in his promotional debut.
Result: Mounir Lazzez def. Abdul Razak Alhassan via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Updated records: Lazzez (10-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC), Alhassan (10-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC)
Key stat: Lazzez landed four takedowns and won the striking battle 114-70.
Lazzez on the fight’s key moment
“I love to be the underdog and to show my skill, and that’s exactly what happened (Wednesday). I came in as the underdog, and I enjoy the victory. When he put me in the first round against the cage, I said, ‘What, this is all that you’ve got?’ I still have a lot of weapons, and just step by step, I killed his will with the kicks, moving around, high kick, low kick – I showed my wrestling, my takedown defense.”
Lazzez on winning the mental game
“I kept visualizing this over and over as just another fight. Don’t put pressure on yourself and just go enjoy what you do. I love this craft. I love when I get clipped and I see the will inside the eye of my opponent. That mental game – I love that. I love that deep water stuff. My mental game, I’ve said it before – maybe you can be more technical and maybe you can be more powerful, but my will and my mental game, you can’t beat it.”
Lazzez on what he wants next
“I’m healthy – 100 percent. I swear to God, I’m ready to go in two weeks. But I’ll let my management speak to the UFC, and when that idiot (Mike Perry) is ready, I’m ready to go.”
To hear more from Lazzez, check out the video of the full post-fight interview above.
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