MMA Opinion Exclusive: Dan “The Upgrade” Lauzon

Dan “The Upgrade” Lauzon burst into the MMA scene at the age of 18. Shortly after winning his first four fights by submission, Lauzon made his UFC debut at UFC 64 in October 2006. Although he lost to Spencer Fisher by TKO, Lauzon was the youngest fighter to ever appear in the UFC.

Since then, Dan has fought for a variety of promotions including WCF and Affliction. He is on an eight-fight winning streak, and most recently defeated loose cannon Bobby Green via rear naked choke during Affliction: Day of Reckoning.

Lauzon is once again scheduled to fight 2007 IFL Grand Prix finalist Chris Horodecki on August 1st for Affliction: Trilogy. Here’s what the Upgrade had to say…

On his upcoming fight with Horodecki:

We’re supposed to be fighting August 1st now. It’s going to be almost a year that they’ve been trying to set this fight up, because they were trying to set it up for the last Affliction which was supposed to be October 11. And then it got pushed back to January, and then as everyone knows, he got hurt like a day or two before the fight, and they found a replacement, but now it looks like we’re actually going to get to finally fight. I’m looking forward to it. I hope he’s ready because I’m gonna bring it

He’s really good on the feet, I’m really good on the ground so it’s a perfect match, striker versus grappler. He’s 12-1 and I’m 12-2. But he’s 12-1 with 6 knockouts and 6 decisions and I’m 12-2 with 6 KO’s and 6 submissions, so I’m much more well-rounded than him

I’d like to take the fight to the ground but I’m not too worried about his stand-up. I don’t think he has much power in his punches or his kicks. His first six fights is where he has all those KO’s but I don’t really think he was fighting guys that were at all really that good. I think he was more looking to get the experience and get in there. If you look at it, anytime he fought someone who was pretty good he’s gone to a decision with them. His last six wins have all been decisions. He hasn’t put anyone away, so…

On his last fight with Bobby Green this past January:

It was pretty intense. I didn’t really know what to expect going in there. I didn’t know if Green was going to shoot in on me; I didn’t know if he wanted to stand, I didn’t know what to expect from him. It was kind of awkward. I didn’t really have a game plan–like I said, I didn’t know what to expect. He just came out like, just crazy, came out really aggressive he had nothing to lose and that’s the worst person to fight I think is someone who comes in with nothing to lose. They just go 150 miles an hour and hope for the best, and that’s what he did. But I was able to slow him down a little bit and I actually got to work my game. Once we got to the ground, it was just submission after submission and I knew eventually I was gonna catch him with something.

On whether he was faking any of those groin kicks:

Of course I wasn’t faking it. I’m not a bitch, I don’t fake an injury or nothing like that. The first one hit me square in the nuts and after that, any little tap like that is going to hurt. Like I said, he hit me with the first one… the second time he kneed me, put me down again. At first I was like, oh I can take it, but after the second one I’m like, really? Two of these already and it’s only the first round? And the third one, it scraped me across the front of my cup, my lead leg, I stepped back with so I was square, and he kicked right across the front of the cup. After he hit me, it still hurt after getting hit two times before that. I wasn’t faking any of them; I’m not like that I don’t think…he hit me in the nuts. And I don’t think it was intentional, I think it was just really an accident. I don’t think he meant to hit me in the nuts on purpose… but he definitely hit me in the good fellas.

Dan Lauzon competing at Northest Challenge Absolute Division
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EQm-I4nCIw[/youtube]

About he and his brother (UFC fighter Joe Lauzon) beating each other up:

Yeah we got in a lot of fights growing up, when we were little I used to beat him up pretty well but he started training 2 years before me. I started training around the time I turned 14 and but before that he’d come home from the gym and show me stuff he was learning, so when I first started training I knew some things already. Slowly but surely I caught up to him and now me and him, we really go back and forth. We do a lot of the same things, we grapple and fight but I think we’re still two totally different fighters. He’s better at some things than I am and I’m better at other things but it just goes with him having his own game and me having my own game.

About his neck tattoo:

My neck tattoo says Upgrade, it was a nickname my brother Joe gave to me, probably about 4 years ago before my first fight. We were just training and he always tells everyone, “Oh, this is the upgrade,” when he introduces me. “This is the upgrade right here, he’s bigger, he’s faster, he’s stronger.” He says I’m ike an evil version of him, like him 2.0 It’s a pretty good nickname, something you’ve got to live up to. One day I’m gonna let everyone know why he gave me that name. That’s what I’m telling you right now. I’m looking to get my name out there and win fights and I just want to improve, really.

About fighting for Affliction or the UFC:

Yeah, I’d like to fight in the UFC again. Right now Affliction is where it’s at, they’re paying me really well, they treat me pretty well. I like the UFC, I think the UFC is up there. Affliction right now is starting a competition with them, but the UFC has a lot of money, a lot of fighters, they’ve got a lot of TV slots with Spike and I think if the UFC really wants to start throwing their weight around they’re really going to come after Affliction and try to shut them out and shut them down. But yeah, I’d definitely like to fght in the UFC at some point.

Barnett versus Fedor?

I gotta go with Fedor. How can you go against him? He’s the #1 heavyweight in the world, and it’s for a reason. Because he comes out there with no game plan, he just brings it, and you can’t go against him. Until someone proves otherwise, I’m gonna pick Fedor over anyone right now.

On Fedor’s contract negotiations:

Fedor’s been talking about his contract negotiations where he started talking to UFC. and he said he couldn’t do it, it was something he couldn’t sign. Because he likes to compete over in Russia in the Sambo or whatever else, but the UFC probably wouldn’t let him do that. They like to have complete control of their fighters, which kind of sucks, but it’s just smart on the UFC’s part. They’re their fighters, they’re the ones putting in the time to promote them so they can’t take the chance if the guy fights for some promotion and ends up getting hurt

On who he wants to fight:

I don’t know to be honest, right now I don’t know of anyone else signed with Affliction for 155 except me and Horodecki. Hopefully Affliction will have another show after this one and hopefully I’ll be fighting on that, I want to, and whoever they set me up to fight is who I want to fight

If I could fight anybody, outside of Affliction, in any promotion at 155… I don’t know. Maybe fight my brother, that’d be fun right?! Put that on TV, a lot of people would want to see that, brother versus brother. I’d fight my brother.

You’d fight your brother, man?

Hell yeah. Why not? I fight him at home, I mean not so much anymore but when we were little we’d fight all the time and up until a couple years ago we used to fight all the time. Why not fight on TV and get paid for it?

Damn! How’s Joe’s knee?

His knee is doing really well actually, he’s up and training a little bit but not going full speed. He’s starting to grapple a little bit with it. He started walking for about 2 months; he started running for about a month, I think it’s coming along. They said it’s gonna be a 12-14 month recovery but he’s actually looking much better than that, hopefully, I think looking to fight like November or December I think is what it’s looking like. But he just can’t rush it, you know you see too many guys that get injured and they try to come back from the injury and they’re not the same fighter. That’s not the case with Joe, I don’t think it is. He’s still very young in his career but he just needs to take his time and making sure it’s 100% before he fights again

On his day job:

No, I don’t have a day job. Actually, I just moved out of my parents’ house because they were upset that I wouldn’t get a job because I told them that fighting is my thing. It’s what I’m gonna do and I’m either going to make a lot of money fighting or I’m gonna be a bum trying. That’s a famous Drew Ficket quote right there. He’s a good friend of mine and he lives by that, I live by that, and so I moved out of my parent’s house. I got my own place now, and I’m just training, looking to beat some ass and make some money. So there you go.

Thank yous:

I just want to thank all the guys out here at my gym, Lauzon Mixed Martial arts, and my sponsors, Death Wish, Sprawl Fight Short Company, Slaying Angels, Boston Brawler, Sacred Addition Tattoo, and thanks to all my fans that are supporting me in my career.