SAN JOSE, CA - JULY 26: (R-L) Patrick Cummins punches Kyle Kingsbury in their light heavyweight bout during the UFC Fight Night event at SAP Center on July 26, 2014 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Light heavyweight Patrick Cummins is known for his high-level wrestling, but he plans on making his mark with his standup on Nov. 7 in his next fight against Glover Teixeira. Beating a knockout artist like Teixeira on the feet is certainly a tall order, but the American is sure that he'll have the speed advantage.
"It's not so much a plan, it's something that will happen," he laughed when talking about knocking Teixeira out, recently, to Submission Radio.
"But no, I feel like I'm gonna go out there I'm gonna strike with him, I'm gonna surprise him on my feet. And if it goes to the ground, it goes to the ground, but I feel like I'm looking for the knockout this time around."
Cummins isn't forgetting about his grappling base, but he does seem to be falling in love with his newfound striking ability. After all, he believes that if things don't go well on the feet, he can always go back to wrestling.
"I still think if I want to take this fight to the ground and be successful on the ground I can do that," he continued.
"But my strategy for striking is just be sharper and be faster. I mean I feel like that should be everybody's game plan. But I really feel like that's a real possibility for this fight, is I feel like I have a speed advantage. And so it's really, work on my footwork, make sure I have my legs under me, and I'm just working on coming in, doing what I need to do and exiting however I can, or transitioning to a takedown. So I really do, I really feel like I've got the advantage when it comes to speed, and I think what a lot of people haven't seen yet is the power of my punches. I'm pretty anxious to show that off. So maybe this will be the fight."
Should he win, Cummins will have put together a two fight win streak, and will have won five out of his last six. With that type of record in the UFC, Cummins would love to go after a rematch with Daniel Cormier.
He made his UFC debut against Cormier in 2014 and lost quickly. Now that Cormier is the division's champion, Cummins' desire for revenge certainly has not lessened.
"Yeah that would definitely be my callout," he said of publicly asking for another Cormier fight if he beats Teixeira.
"Yeah I just feel like I'm a handful for anybody in three rounds. I think people will look at me, anyone in the light heavyweight division kind of looks at me like 'I don't want to deal with that dude for three rounds, like that's just kind of tortuous'. But let's add two more rounds to that and I feel like not many people can hang with my pace and the way I push things and just kind of making it miserable. I feel like that's kinda my ace in the hole. So obviously I've watched the tape, I've seen what I did wrong, I'd change a couple things around, but yeah I think that pace and just that mentality of 'okay man, you're stuck in here with 25 minutes with me and I'm gonna push you hard'. So that's my best attribute, apparently."
Well, that and his stunning good looks. "And," he added, "I've got a pretty face."
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