Manny "The Mangler" Tapia responds to some of the comments that Miguel Torres has told the press in regards to both his stand-up and ground skills. In a previous article that was posted on UFCFight.com today, Torres stated "I know he’s preparing for the ground game, but you can’t compare three months of training to 10 years of jiu-jitsu…he doesn’t throw any kicks and doesn’t throw big knees on the inside. I’m gonna be able to pick him apart."
Tapia completely disagrees with Torres’ comments because he comes from a "submission camp" and has been using his stand-up skills amongst previous opponents simply because "people like to see that." Tapia feels very confident coming into this fight as an undefeated MMA fighter, holding 10 wins to his favor and only one draw in his career.
Manny Tapia talks to ufc.com about his WEC 37 bantamweight (135 lbs.) title fight:
"I’m a mellow dude, the nicest guy in the world…I like to help people. I’m usually the guy stopping the fights, so it’s pretty funny I get paid to fight…My friends can’t believe I do this…They just can’t picture me beating somebody up….girls tell me they can’t see me as a fighter and can’t believe it’s me in
there fighting, heck I never thought I’d be fighting for a world title,
but here I am…Mentally, I already won the belt…The belt is already hanging in my house. I’m in the best shape of my
life, and I know Miguel has beaten many fighters in his career, but he
hasn’t fought me yet. I hope he’s ready cause I am…We’re mostly a submission camp. I train with great ground guys. He’s a
great fighter, but he hasn’t done a submission I haven’t seen. I’m also
a good ground fighter. I only started striking more because people like
to see that. I don’t want to bore people. I want them to see some good
action, but Torres is completely wrong that I’m a one dimensional
fighter."
