Jason Lambert next fights in UFC 59 against Terry Martin. In the ADCC News archives are a couple updates with Jason mostly following his last year, beating Travis Wiuff and Marvin Eastman before debuting in the UFC just one month ago at UFC 58. He won that fight against AFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jason MacDonald by kimura in the first round. Photos of Jason?s fight against Travis Wiuff are posted at http://malarky.udel.edu/~keith/2005/FFC/ffc09140505.htm and photos of Jason fighting Marvin Eastman are posted at http://malarky.udel.edu/~keith/2005/KOTC/kotc05070506.htm. KM: How do you feel about returning to the UFC? JL: I think it is good, it is a good venue being able to fight in California where I have a lot of fanbase. KM: You grew up in California and now finally MMA is sanctioned there. What does that mean to you? JL: I think it is great. I think it is huge. Most of the people that go to the Vegas shows are from California. I think Southern California is the hotbed of MMA. KM: We are seeing a lot of bigger shows give it a shot. Are you focused on the UFC or are you entertaining options? JL: I think I?m fighting in the UFC for at least a few more fights. I haven?t talked to anybody else. KM: What do you think of your opponent Terry Martin? JL: He is a tough guy from what I?ve seen. He has some good wins and only has one loss when he was dominating anyway.KM: But he doesn?t have the amount of experience you have. Is experience going to be a factor? JL: I don?t know. I don?t know all of the opponents he has fought but I don?t see him keeping up with me. He looked like he was pretty tired after being on top for a whole round. I think his cardio is a little suspect. KM: You have one common opponent, Chael Sonnen. You lost to Sonnen but he beat Chael. Your loss to Chael was about two years ago. People are going to look at that but I don?t think it necessarily applies since you have changed so much since then. What are your thoughts on all that? JL: I?m not even the same fighter that I was a few years ago, so I hope they do. KM: How would you say you have changed in that time? JL: Well, I submitted Jason MacDonald and it was a very jiu-jitsu style submission. My submissions are much better. They aren?t really ?wrestlie?, they are true jiu-jitsu style submissions. KM: I thought it was because your fight against Sonnen was one of your first at Light Heavyweight, that you have become more comfortable with that weight class and your conditioning has improved. JL: The Sonnen fight was a bad fight for me because it was a change (in opponents). (Note: in a previous update we discussed Jason was training to fight a jiu-jitsu fighter when it was changed to Sonnen). If you are going to compare me to that fight then I hope so because I am just going to run over you. KM: Your last fight was your UFC debut. Everybody talks about first-time jitters. What was that like? JL: I had a little bit but I stayed focused and got the job done so it was a good thing. KM: Can you describe that fight against MacDonald? JL: It was very fast paced. I came out and tried to take him down right away. He defended, we got back up, he threw some punches, I started to pursue and then walked away because I didn?t want to get cut rushing in. We exchanged again and he tried to do Greco move, I went to my knees, picked up a single, ended up picking him up and dropping him with a hard slam. I lost control because I slammed him so hard and we got back to our feet. I threw a solid knee to the body, he went down, I went to side control and started dropping elbows, and went right to the kimura. That was it. KM: That was your first submission win in almost three years. Did it prove anything to get a submission win after so long? JL: I don?t even care anymore, I just want to win as good as possible. Whatever they give me. KM: That was at the last UFC so these are close together. How are you doing in training? JL: Excellent. I?m on weight, I?m perfect. KM: Anything else to get across to the fans? JL: I just want to thank everybody for all the support and my sponsors Sprawl, Core Orthopedic, and Unbreakable Mouthpieces.
