mma / News

Josh Hill’s Strategy Against Marlon Moraes: Don’t Get Kicked

July 27, 2016 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas

Josh Hill spoke with MMAjunkie about his fight with Marlon Moraes at WSOF 32. Some highlights are below:

On Moraes being at the end of his contract with WSOF: “What he does with his own career, I don’t care – I just worry about what I do with my career. My biggest thing is to get the win. If he’s planning on leaving after this, then I’m going to try to play spoiler and ruin his plans and take that belt and go from there. I just want to be the champ.”

On losing to Moraes previously: “I think before, most people thought he would just run through me. I was a heavy underdog, but then I showed them obviously that’s not the case. We had a back-and-forth, five-round fight that was really close. I’m still the underdog on the betting lines going in to it, but my confidence has risen, and even when I lost the decision, it gave me a good confidence boost for the rematch. I know I’m capable of beating him, too, and that what kind of drives me more. We’ve been in there, we’ve felt each other’s power and whatnot. I’m anxious to get back in there. Last time, I let him get back in the fight and take the fight, and I don’t want to do that this time. I’ve got to keep the throttle down and go at him.”

On his strategy: “I just have to try not to get kicked by them, basically. I worried a lot about them in the first fight and that’s probably one of his biggest weapons, is his kicks, especially in the striking. We worked a lot on checking kicks, making him miss and I continued to do that this camp. Movement is key. If you watch a lot of guys that move, they’re hard to time to throw legs kicks, and it is hard to throw them also when you’re backing up. We factor all those things in and work on it, and it’s something I definitely got to watch out for and try to take away from him. It’s definitely one of the biggest weapons I can see.”

On wanting to finish the bout: “I’m looking for that finish. I don’t want to give him the chance to go to the judges again and give them the chance to give him another decision. They say, ‘You got the beat the champ to take the belt.’ I don’t want to go in that scenario, so I’m looking for that finish to knock him out or submit him. The earlier the better.”