There was a time when Maurice
Greene would take virtually any fight offered in hopes of a
payday.
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Greene admits that approach had its downside, but things have
changed in recent times now that the “The Crochet Boss” is training
alongside current UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
“I’ve been fighting for a long time, and for a long time it was
literally just I was trying to get the biggest bag,” Greene said at
Professional Fighters League press conference. “Sometimes you don’t
get a full fight camp to get the bag, you have to just take fights
as they come. Sometimes you don’t have all the training partners in
the room, you don’t have all the resources.
“It’s hard not to do it right when you’re training with Jon Jones.
It’s hard not to do it right when you’re in his camps,” Greene
added. “There’s a bunch of things I do different now that I never
did before. Training with Jon and the small group of guys that
we’re with, it kind of resparked the flame. That fire was almost
out. I was going through the motions. I’m not going through those
motions no more.”
Greene will face Renan
Ferreira in a heavyweight semifinal in the PFL 8 featured bout
on Friday at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. The
main card airs on ESPN and ESPN+ at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT following
prelims on ESPN+ at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.
“He’s a game fighter,” Greene said of his opponent. “He’s down to
scrap. You know what’s coming, you know he’s gonna move forward and
throw hard strikes. And you know you’re in for a fight. I welcome
all of that. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t trying to fight the
best guys.”
While many of Ferreira’s PFL opponents struggle with his 6-foot-8
frame, the 6-foot-7 Greene is nearly the physical equal of the
Brazilian. And, he points out that he’s seen large fighters while
competing under the Glory Kickboxing banner.
“You deal with guys in Glory that are just as athletic as him.
They’re very fluid with their boxing, their kickboxing. I fought
guys bigger; I know what somebody bigger than me looks like,”
Greene said. “I don’t think he’s much bigger than me if I’m being
honest. He’s an inch taller, I’m just as wide, I weight just as
much.”
In addition to consistent work with Jones, Greene recently had the
opportunity to learn from five-time ADCC world champion Gordan
Ryan. That allowed Greene to build upon his own grappling base.
“He just taught some very useful stuff,” Greene said. “Some things
I knew, but he gave me more understanding of some of those
positions and some of the transitions to other positions. It was
amazing to just feel what greatness is like on the jiu-jitsu mat.
He’s one of a kind. The way that he’s able to articulate the sport
of jiu-jitsu, it’s something. It all made sense. Something I could
pick up and use Friday night.”