I wish I could have got Nick Osipczak at EV- UFC 118

[chrisharvard01]

Soto is good, but not good enough. This one opened at even.

Now Osipczak is at -140 chalk. Damn.


Soto does have a chance, but i'd need more +money. I think Nick has got him, even though he's a dick

[brooks85]

ya me too, i like osip in this matchup also.

[Eccocide]

I played Osipzak at -130, priced him at -155 so I'm okay with the price i got. Obviously EV woulda been nice though!

[chrisharvard01]

yep, playing this one even though i slept through the value.

[squallsquall]

Hm... just so I understand you guys here, are you using EV as short for EVen?

[Straight Cash]

Agreed, he's a solid fighter.

[illmatick]

anyone have some film on soto that they can link me to?

[Eccocide]

anyone have some film on soto that they can link me to?

Check your PM.

[Vaughany]

Soto's Second Chance for a First Impression (UFC ARTICLE)...
Jordan Newmark August 14, 201
I think we are going to come in there and butt heads and the better man is going to win.”
When one imagines how their UFC debut will conclude, the outcomes are usually win, lose or draw. Not many prepare themselves for "disqualification by up-kick". But for New Jersey product Greg Soto, that became his reality at UFC 111 in March.

In front of a local Newark crowd, Soto started his Octagon career against The Ultimate Fighter season 7 veteran Matt Riddle. The match began the same as always for Riddle, but for Soto, this fight was taken on short notice and would mark his first professional fight without his mentor, coach and UFC lightweight Kurt Pellegrino in his corner.

“Even though it was on a little bit of short notice, I felt well prepared. It was great fighting in New Jersey in front of a hometown crowd,” Soto said of his first fight. “Riddle fought his game and I let him play that game that night. He got the better of me.”

In the opening two rounds, Soto fought Riddle's fight. Riddle took Soto down and controlled him throughout those first 10 minutes.

Before the third round started, Soto knew that he was down on the scorecards and needed to pull out a victory in the final frame. Soto was still optimistic about his chances, “I felt really fresh going into the third round. I felt like I was coming on and Riddle was really dying out fast. I think I was getting the better of the stand-up in the fight.”

The final round started out with much of the same, as Riddle scored another takedown. Soto made a submission attempt, which Riddle postured up and out of. What Soto saw next was the opening he needed to finish the fight, a defenseless Riddle squatting right in front him and all of this could be ended with one concrete up-kick. Soto landed that kick, but the problem was Riddle wasn't in a squat. His knee was on the ground.

“I was trying to up-kick him. What I saw was, I had a triangle attempt and he jerked out of it. I thought he was sitting like a baseball catcher. But he had one knee down and I couldn't see it. I railed him. Soon as I saw him sit up I tried to kick him as hard as I could in the face. I could see right away something was wrong based on how the referee ran up so quick. I could see that he must've had a knee down or something. I knew I had made a mistake.”

A few moments later, the fight was called and Soto had lost by disqualification. No matter what transpired earlier in the fight, with that one action Soto was now 0-1 in the UFC and his night of fighting was over. To make things worse, this was not only Soto’s first loss in the UFC, but it was his first loss as a professional fighter.

“Disappointment,” lamented Soto, describing how he felt in the cage after the fight. “It was just utter disappointment. In hindsight, I would've fought a different strategy and not wrestled with him. I would've really picked my shots. I should have executed my game-plan better at creating space between us as opposed to wrestling with him.”

At UFC 118, Soto has his shot at redemption in the Octagon. He will be taking on another Ultimate Fighter cast member in Nick Osipczak. The lanky British striker took on Riddle in his first UFC match and won via TKO in the third round. This fact does not dissuade Soto about his chances in his second UFC appearance. “I think we match up well. I think this is a classic ‘striker vs. grappler’ match,” commented Soto. “I feel I'm much more well-rounded than he is. He is very good at stand-up. He uses his length very well. But I see holes in his game that I will definitely exploit.”

The determining factor for Soto to win may be less what he does in the cage, but more the voice he hears outside of the cage: Kurt Pellegrino. Soto is a disciple of Pellegrino’s and holds a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jistu under him. As mentioned, it was “Batman” who was missing in Soto’s corner in his loss versus Riddle because Pellegrino was also scheduled to fight at UFC 111 against Fabricio Camoes. Of Pellegrino’s cornering methods, “He is great at strategizing and great at getting my attention to help me adjust on the fly. It really was a detriment not having him in my corner for that fight.”

Pellegrino will be there in Boston in Soto’s corner just as he has been with Soto everyday training him for his second go round in the cage. Soto trains at Pellegrino’s MMA academy in Belmar, NJ, where he also works as an assistant instructor. “Kurt runs great MMA practices,” Soto beams about his friend, “We'll start off our back, in half guard, up against the cage, we work back to our feet to stand-up. Just a lot of MMA drills. Not so much breaking it up into grappling and kickboxing, but we're mixing it all together.”

Defeat was new to Soto’s fighting record, where he had previously amassed seven victories with five of them stoppages. Soto is known mostly as a grappler, having wrestled most of his life and through to college. He then made the transition to other martial arts, “I got to a point where I was wrestling in college and it wasn't fun anymore. I had gotten my black belt in judo, I was training a lot of jiu-jitsu with Kurt and I had won a lot of grappling tournaments. I just took a chance and said I'm going to start fighting.”

This will be Soto’s moment to demonstrate his fighting potential against a game opponent who also needs a win. “I am expecting nothing less than the best Nick Osipczak,” Soto remarks on his opponent. “Especially, seeing as he lost his last fight. I think we both have something to prove.” If anything, Soto is just looking to return to his winning ways, “I think we are going to come in there and butt heads and the better man is going to win.” Two young talented fighters against each other in the cage trying to cement themselves in the UFC’s welterweight rankings? Sounds like the UFC fans will win.

[Vaughany]

Nick Osipczak: BORN TO THRILL...

Elliot Worsell August 10, 2010


“I see me stuffing his takedowns, and Soto only getting more and more tired and frustrated. More openings will then present themselves to me and I'll be able to strike with him and knock him out.”

'Slick' Nick Osipczak is man enough to accept the inevitability of defeat. At least, that is, when defeat truly feels like defeat. Since departing season nine of The Ultimate Fighter, England's Osipczak has suffered only one professional loss, and yet it never felt the way he expected it to. The talented welterweight was outwrestled and muffled by American Ricky Story at UFC 112 and, though the bout remained competitive throughout, Osipczak was ultimately frustrated and defeated. Osipczak left Abu Dhabi that weekend feeling slightly dejected, but mostly confused.

“I was disappointed that I was in a fight like that,” explains Osipczak. “I just didn't agree with the way the fight went. I found the fight boring, and quickly realised Story was only content to lay on top of me and stifle any chance of a fight breaking out. I don't want any of that in my career, so I've now had to learn how stop guys like that trying to lay on top of me for three rounds.

“The loss has definitely been bugging me. To begin with I wasn't quite sure where I'd gone wrong in that Story fight and was a bit confused. I've now realised where I went wrong with Story and I'm looking forward to making the necessary changes and adjustments in my next fight.”

Osipczak's post-fight blues weren't born from a realisation that he was out of his depth or had been shockingly beaten up. He was, instead, finally coming to terms with the fact that mixed martial arts was perhaps even more far-reaching and all-encompassing than he'd originally anticipated. While Osipczak and, for that matter, many other British fighters, love nothing more than an old-fashioned tear-up, the scope of mixed martial arts allows many opponents to fight against their wishes and still conjure victory. Osipczak wasn't beaten by Story in a fight that April night, but he was outscored in a mixed martial arts bout.

“The same thing happened to Paul Kelly in America on Sunday (August 1st), when he lost to Jacob Volkmann,” adds Osipczak. “He actually wrote on his Facebook account and apologised to all his fans, not for losing, but for being involved in a fight like that. He said he'd rather lose than be in a dull fight, and I think most of us feel that way, too. Unfortunately, there are a lot of guys in the UFC who rely on their wrestling to shut people down and grind out a boring decision.

“Even with that in mind, I still thought I'd done enough to beat Story. I knew he'd won the first round quite clearly, I won the second round and, in the third round, although he took me down, I landed a flying knee in the final stages. It all boiled down to whether you think it's better to take a guy down and then get stood up thirty seconds later because you didn't do anything with it, or land a flying knee to someone's face and rock them. I believe fights should be scored on damage, so felt I did enough to edge it.”

Rather than mope around and protest an overhaul of the way mixed martial arts bouts are scored, Osipczak has simply got his head down and worked on his own shortcomings. He's alternated between sessions at Nottingham's Team Rough House and Liverpool's Team Kaobon and, with the Story trauma still fresh on the brain, is beginning to figure out how to survive in 21st century mixed martial arts. No longer able to rely solely on what comes naturally, Osipczak, like so many others, is having to cater for all possible eventualities.

“The main thing I've come to realise is that I need to be prepared to face someone who doesn't want to fight,” explains Nick. “I was surprised by Story and the fact he didn't want to trade with me at all throughout the fight. He was constantly looking to close the distance and take me down. From watching his previous fights, I'd wrongly assumed he was going to swap some strikes and then pick his moment to shoot in on me.

“I've also learned that, rather than wrestle around my striking, I'm now going to strike around my wrestling. I'm going to have a lower base and make it harder for guys to take me down, as I'll be expecting it and will be prepared for it. Wrestling will be at the forefront of my mind, rather than just something I react to. I'm going to shut my opponent down, before doing what I like to do.”

Osipczak gets the chance to put his words and lessons into action on August 28 in Boston, as he meets Greg Soto, another wrestler and grappler, who will no doubt again look to dump the Brit on his backside. Now aware and, in truth, expecting such a scenario to unfold, Osipczak promises to have a surprise in store for his next wrestler.

“I hadn't heard of Greg Soto when the opponent was first given to me,” admits Osipczak. “Obviously I looked him up as soon as I heard the name and discovered he'd fought Matthew Riddle, a guy I'd also fought. So that was interesting. I watched the fight and saw Riddle pretty much dominate Soto throughout, until an illegal up-kick from Soto handed Riddle a disqualification win.

“My immediate thought was, 'Oh, the UFC have been kind to me here'. I saw Soto as someone to just beat up, as he'd lost to a man I'd already beaten. All in all, I'm very pleased with the match-up and he's going to be in for a tough time. I feel sorry for him.”

New Jersey’s Soto is 7-1 in his mixed martial arts career, and suffered his sole loss last time out against Riddle. Meanwhile, Osipczak officially kicked off his UFC career against the same foe last November and couldn't have looked more impressive in grinding down and halting Riddle with seconds to go the third round. The versatile Brit successfully outwrestled a collegiate standout and, unwilling to go to the cards, continued his assault when so many others would have casually rode the victory out.

Despite the ease at which Osipczak stopped Riddle, the calculated Londoner won't be taking Soto lightly on August 28.

“I realise that different styles make different fights and lead to different results,” warns Osipczak. “It's not as simple as I make it sound and I know I can't rely on past form to get me a win. Soto is a wrestler, but Riddle was a better wrestler, and that's why he was able to dominate him. Soto wanted to be on top, but Riddle was too good of a wrestler to let him do that.

“I didn't just look at the result of that fight, I also looked at what Soto was or wasn't able to do from the bottom. Soto's a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, yet he couldn't come close to sweeping Riddle or finding a submission. I'm not a brown belt, but I was able to sweep Riddle and nearly submit him. I can only assume that my ground game might be better than Soto's, as I was able to do stuff from the bottom that he wasn't able to. Soto's probably used to being on top of people, and his top game is presumably a lot better than his bottom game, whereas I've spent a lot of time on my back and have a pretty strong guard.”

Keen to put the record straight and conquer another wrestler, Osipczak, 5-2, couldn't be happier with his latest choice of foe. The 25-year-old will look to take everything he's learned, from victory over Riddle and frustrating defeat against Story, and combine them to make a statement against Soto. For Osipczak, there's no chance of getting burned twice in the same manner.

“My striking is at a much higher level than his is, and I think I'll have a psychological advantages due to the fact Soto has lost to Riddle and is pretty much fighting for his career right now,” says Osipczak. “He'll be 0-2 in the UFC after this fight and will probably be sent packing.

“I see me stuffing his takedowns, and Soto only getting more and more tired and frustrated. More openings will then present themselves to me and I'll be able to strike with him and knock him out.”

Now ready for all possible eventualities, Osipczak predicts only one.

[illmatick]

Check your PM.

awesome site..thanks

for some reason I was thinking Soto had a lot better striking game, definitely think Nick is the right play here

[snake11eyes]

Hm... just so I understand you guys here, are you using EV as short for EVen?

Yes thats correct.

[chrisharvard01]

vaughn good stuff here!

amusing avatar, squally.

[fastcrx]

I also like nick in this play