'Fancy Pants' Not Worried About Aoki

Aoki is still well known and widely respected among MMA fans for his years of dominance on the Japanese scene. If a chance to make his name off the grappling phenom is the penance for his own defeat, then Beerbohm will gladly take it, whatever the motivating force behind it may be.

"They called me and asked if I wanted to fight Aoki, and I didn't ask a whole lot of questions," he said. "I said sure. That's a good fight for me."

Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez beat Aoki by avoiding takedowns and using the cage to his advantage. That's one way to do it, Beerbohm said. But after an honest assessment of his own skills, he's decided he needs to find another route.

"I don't think my sprawl-and-brawl is up to par," said Beerbohm. "In MMA, if someone really wants a takedown and they commit to it, I think they usually get it. Unless, I guess, you have some super good sprawl-and-brawl, like Gilbert Melendez did. He really shut him down. But I'm not that type of fighter. I definitely have to be aware of his tricky submissions, but I have to kind of fight him a little bit different. I don't want to be on my back with him, so I have to push the pace and either get on top of him or beat him up against the cage."


Source & Article: MMA Fighting