Stepping in to compete at UFC on FX: Belfort vs Rockhold on May 18 in Jaragua do Sul, Brail, Chris Camozzi replaced the injured CB Dollaway and prepared to face Cezar Ferreira. Ferreira then bowed out with an injury of his own, making way for Rafael Natal to step in. However, Cypriot middleweight Constantinos Philippou pulled out of the card with injury leaving Brazil’s Ronaldo Souza (17-3, 1NC) without an opponent for the co-main event. In yet another switch of opponent, Camozzi found himself filling in for ‘Costa’, and is now set to face former Strikeforce middleweight champion Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza with “nothing to lose”.
“Obviously the last change they gave me was a step up on the card to the co-main event, so of course I can’t complain about that. I’m getting the opportunity to fight a legend in ‘Jacare’, which I’m really excited about,” Camozzi told MMAWeekly.com content partner Knockout Radio.
“I’ve always been all about fighting guys that I’ve seen on TV or that I’ve followed throughout the sport, match-ups that excite me, and this is one of them,”
“They just gave me a big opportunity that I’ve been asking for, so it didn’t matter who it was, I would have said yes,”
“The game plan stays quite a bit the same. There’s a few changes as far as some of the things he does that I think I can capitalize on, but other than that everything has stayed a lot the same. I’m more focused on what I’m going to do rather than what he’s going to do or what I think he’s going to do,”
On a four-fight win streak, Camozzi (19-5) has built a reputation for exciting exchanges and the 26-year-old appears to have been rewarded with the biggest fight of his career so far.
“Every fight I go into I always plan on striking. I would say it is important to keep it off the mat, but I’m not going to have that in my head where I’m panicking or anything,” he said. “Defensively, I feel pretty comfortable. Obviously, we all know, no matter how much jiu-jitsu I do, I’m not going to be better than him at jiu-jitsu, but this is MMA, so there’s a lot more variables in there. I feel I’ll be comfortable anywhere it goes, but again I have my game plan and I’m sure he has his.”
“He’s ranked higher than me. This is a fight where not that many people are giving me a chance of winning. So I go in there and fight with nothing to lose and those are the most dangerous fights for guys like ‘Jacare’ to take.”
Brought to you by Jorden Curran. Follow Jorden on Twitter @onejcurran
Follow MMA PLUS on Twitter @MMAPLUS and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/roberto.mmaplus
