PARIS – [autotag]Volkan Oezdemir[/autotag] showed off his ground game at UFC Fight Night 226.
Oezdemir (19-7 MMA, 7-6 UFC) submitted Bogdan Guskov (14-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) with a rear-naked choke in the first round in Saturday’s main card at Accor Arena in Paris. Oezdemir credits his time training at All Star Gym in Sweden with [autotag]Khamzat Chimaev[/autotag], which led to his first submission win since 2012.
“I took it how it came, but I also put a lot of emphasis on my ground,” Oezdemir told reporters at the UFC Fight Night 226 post-fight news conference. “Now I’ve been training at All Star for my third camp. I feel really great. The first two camps were back-to-back. I just came, it was like eight weeks before the fight. So, full camp, a lot of volume, three to four trainings a day, really hard.
“Training with Khamzat, it was really tough. It put a toll on the body, then I was off two weeks vacation, come back again, another camp, felt overtrained, but fought. But now with the offseason, being able to train now, I can feel the progression, work on my techniques, understand all the concepts they can propose, and now you can see that in my fight.”
Oezdemir gained confidence in knowing that if he can handle Chimaev’s wrestling in the practice room, no one should trouble him in a fight. He plans on helping him out for his upcoming fight against Paulo Costa at UFC 294 on Oct. 21 in Abu Dhabi.
“Once you’re able to protect a takedown, just stand back up against this guy, you know you’re going to be able to do that against everybody else,” Oezdemir said. “Just the input he puts, the volume, and the intensity he brings all the camp, it’s really amazing. So, now he’s training in Abu Dhabi, I’m going to also be following him during the last phase of his camp preparing for his next fight.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 226.