Rizzo against Jeff Monson. Photo: Carlos Ozório
Pedro Rizzo notched his third win in a row by knocking out Ken Shamrock at Impact FC, in Australia. More than the joy of winning, what Rizzo feels is satisfaction for being able to fight more regularly. Ring rust had been putting a damper on the performances of the fighter, who should make his next appearance in October. Rizzo had the following chat with GRACIEMAG.com:
The knockout came just 3:33 min into the fight. Did you expect it to come so quickly?
I was indeed expecting to win in the first round. I saw Shamrock’s recent fights, and he didn’t look so good.
You always complained you suffered ring rust for going so long without a fight. Is that improving?
I think I can fight even better. I was still kind of slow and heavy. I still need to lose a bit of wait to be lighter and quicker. But, for sure, I’ve evolved since the fight against Gary Goodridge and the one with Jeff Monson against Gary Goodridge. I improve my pace with every fight and I think in the next one I’ll be in my ideal state. I have no injuries and I really think the series of fights is helping me to fight better. I’ll repeat, I wasn’t 100% and in my next one, probably in October, I’ll be better.
Photo: Carlos Ozório
What event will you fight in in October?
I’m looking at two, but I’m still finalizing that. I’ll let you know when all the pieces are in place. But I think in October I’ll be at the high level I want to be at to compete with anyone. I’m stoked to be fighting constantly and I’m going to take it fight by fight. We’ll see what happens.
Was the strategy against Ken really to fight standing, the way it actually happened?
They asked me what I expected from Shamrock and I answered that I didn’t know what to expect from him. I saw him trying to strike in recent fight and knew I could defend his takedowns well, but I didn’t know what he was going to try. I just felt out the fight and, when I noticed he really did want to fight standing, I let it rip. I noticed he felt my leg kicks, so I went for the finish. So long as what you do hurts him, you keep doing it.