Lauzon punches way to being a complete UFC fighter

Posted on | October 9, 2008 | 1 Comment

E. BRIDGEWATER, Mass. (October 7, 2008) – UFC lightweight contender Joe “J-Lau” Lauzon demonstrated his improved boxing skills September 17 en route to stopping Kyle Bradley (13-6) at 1:34 of the second round on UFC Fight Night 15 in Omaha, Nebraska.

The 24-year-old Lauzon (17-4, 4 KOs, 13 submissions), star of The Ultimate Fighter 5 television reality show, is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu specialist whose striking or punching ability has been an afterthought, at least until his fight against Bradley.

Knowing that Lauzon was a much more superior fighter on the ground than him, Bradley’s focus was to stay on his feet and Joe, who has been working hard on his boxing, obliged as the first round was more of a boxing match for the two mixed-martial-arts fighters. In the second round, however, Lauzon took down Bradley and quickly got into a mount position on Kyle’s chest, wailing away with both fists. Bradley flipped over on his stomach and Lauzon unloaded with a barrage of damaging punches until the referee mercifully halted the bout.

“I must have hit him with 6-7 solid blasts, one after the other, when I had him down,” Lauzon said. “I hit him so hard and often my left shoulder hurt a little after the fight. It was a good fight for me. I dictated the fight, stalking him around, and controlled the match. In the first round he hit me with a left hook that wobbled me a bit, but it was more because I was off balance. I do need to work more on my feet to be better balance. I worked a lot on my boxing and felt fine boxing him. I kept moving forward. He didn’t want to fight me on the ground.”

In the opening round, Lauzon brought the fans to their collective feet with a tremendous Jui-Jitsu move that just missed bringing down the house. He jumped out and tried a flying heel hook, wrapping both of his legs around one of Bradley’s legs, sweeping Kyle’s legs out from under him.
‘I was sideways in the air for a split second,’ Joe described his fan-friendly move. ‘He has to go down and it puts me in position to finish him with a heel hook. It’s a great submission move but it’s just as good as a takedown. I didn’t finish the submission but it was very close.’

Joe was coming off a disappointing loss by second-round TKO to fellow Bay State fighter Kenny Florian last April 2 in the main event on UFC Fight Night 13 in Denver.

“I went from being in the main event and losing,” Lauzon noted, “to fighting off-TV on the undercard. My name alone wasn’t enough to get my fight on TV. Now, I want a bigger fight next, hopefully January 31.”

Lauzon, whose most notable victory to date was in his UFC debut (September 23, 2006 in UFC 63) when, as a 7-1 underdog, he surprisingly stopped former UFC champion Jens “Little Evil” Pulver (21-7-1) at 43 seconds of the opening round in Pulver’s first UFC loss in eight fights.

For more information about Joe “J-Lau” Lauzon, who has a Bachelor’s degree in computer networking from Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. go online and visit www.joelauzon.com or myspace.com/lauzonrsd.

-JL-

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