Joe Lauzon isn't ready to rest on his laurels. The E. Bridgewater, MA native scored an upset for the ages at UFC 63 at the Pond in Anaheim last weekend when he TKOd former lightweight champion Jens "Little Evil" Pulver in just 48 seconds.
But the 22-year old who makes "Fear No Evil" his moniker is staying humble and getting right back to work.
"One win doesn't make you," he said. "I still have a long way to go and a lot of things I have to work on, so I'm going right back to my training."
Lauzon attracted little attention going into the show. He was simply supposed to be an opponent for what was hyped as Pulver's homecoming. But Lauzon said he didn't mind being overlooked.
"No, I didn't look at it like I was being disrespected," he said. "Looking at it, he's the champ, I deserve to be in there, but I definitely see why I was the underdog. No problem there."
And no problem from there. Lauzon pushed the pace from the get-go with a quick takedown, and after a re-start commenced the assault that caused the left hook which ended the fight.
"We were planning to push the pace, but I definitely didn't expect that outcome, we were trying to use our hands to set up the takedown a little bit, and get him heavy with the lead foot so we took him down.
"I was trying to throw flurries to get him to cover up and take him down again and it got through. Threw a right and followed up with a left out of habit and it just connected."
The victory means Lauzon has earned respect and will be taken seriously in the UFC's lightweight division. It also means UFC president Dana White has to pay up on a bet. One of Lauzon's trainers, Steve Maze, predicted the knockout, and White told Maze he'd let Maze drive his Ferrari if it came to pass. "Well I won, so now Steve gets to drive Dana's Ferrari," said Lauzon. "He hasn't driven it yet, but he will when we go out to Vegas next time."
For his part, Pulver took his loss like a man, and even expressed some relief at getting his first UFC loss out of the way.
"He ran right over me," said Pulver. "I got beat, no excuses. This gives me a bit of release, OK, I've lost in the octagon. My hat's off to Joe. He came out with no fear whatsoever and he caught me. As soon as I can get back, I want to fight again."
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