UFC light-heavyweight Jimmy Crute says his upcoming rematch with Alonzo Menifield is the start of the second stage of his UFC career, as he bids farewell to the first.
The 27-year-old Aussie heads into the bout at UFC 290 in Las Vegas with a refreshed love for the sport and a new team behind him.
Crute and Menifield fought to a draw after a wild three rounds at UFC 284 in Perth but “The Brute” believes he's ready to show that performance wasn’t a true reflection of his ability.
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“I rate [Menifield] as an athlete, I rate him as a human, but as a fighter, as a martial artist, he is not on my level,’ Crute told Sporting News.
“There is a big difference in the skill level of fighting between me and Alonzo.
“Athleticism, all that, we’re pretty even, but in terms of martial arts and fighting ability, there’s a vast difference in our skill.
“He’s good at being explosive, he hits pretty hard, he’s good at getting up off the ground, but in terms of like skill, he masks a lot of his skill with his athleticism.”
Both men had periods of success in the first meeting, although Menifield scored two knockdowns to zero and were it not for a point deduction due to a fence grab, would have likely got the nod.
Crute said he’s going into the rematch with a much clearer idea of his path to victory.
“There is a gameplan now, there actually is a gameplan,” Crute said.
“In the last fight, the whole thing was just, ‘Get him to the ground, get him to the ground.’ And it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, get him to the ground, then what?’
“This time, there’s pathways. There’s pathways standing up and there’s pathways on the ground. I know exactly the positions I need to go to, the techniques I need to use.
“If I sit there with my hands down and my chin up and try and go shot for shot like I did last time, it’s not going to be good for me.
“If I stick and move and do what I’ve been planning to do, it’s going to be a very good night for me.”
Crute credits a new environment with helping him reach this point.
“I’ve started training at Combat 1 under Sam Hayward, I’ve had a complete team change,” he said.
“There’s no disrespect thrown to the way I was training but now I feel like I’ve got a home gym.
“I’ve never had like a real team around me. I’ve had a coaching team but never had training partners.
“So to have the boys, get in there, do the work with the boys and have that camaraderie feeling again, it feels really nice.
“It makes me more excited to go into training when you get to hang out with the boys and you’ve got training partners.”
The new team is one of the reasons Crute sees this fight as a launching point for the next phase of his career.
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He hopes an increased level of activity will feature in the coming years, although he’s not pointing fingers as to why he hasn’t fought as often as he might have liked.
“I feel like I get to say goodbye to that first run and now I get to go on my next run,” Crute said.
“It’s really weird, I feel like I’ve fallen in love with the sport again and it feels really nice.
“The one thing that I don’t like about my UFC career thus far, is I haven’t been as active as I’d like to be. So if I could squeeze out two or three more fights this year, I will.
“It’s [inactivity] my fault. I wasn’t staying ready. I was saying, ‘Yeah, I want to fight.’ But I wasn’t eating the right things and I was blowing out.
“I take full responsibility for everything that’s happened to me in my career.”
If he can get by Menifield unscathed, Crute can potentially put his money where his mouth is and back up for another fight just nine weeks later when the UFC heads to Sydney.
UFC 293 is locked in for September 10 and he doesn’t want to miss the chance to fight again on home soil.
“My first and second UFC fights were eight or nine weeks apart,” he said.
“I’ll do it again.”