Week-in and week-out inside the Octagon, we see tenured veterans and more seasoned foes lean on their experience and savvy to out-work, out-smart, and ultimately defeat promising young competitors, with Polish lightweight Mateusz Gamrot being the most recent example last week. As good as Ľudovit Klein had looked during his seven-fight unbeaten streak, he didn’t have the answers early for Gamrot’s wrestling, allowing the veteran to get out ahead of him on the scorecards and drain his energy reserves en route to securing a unanimous decision win.
There is simply no substitute for experience when you start climbing into the upper reaches of any division in the UFC, and heading into their fight on Saturday night, Cortes Acosta is short on those critical rounds, and Spivac intends to exploit that shortfall.
“Focus, discipline, and a cold mind — that’s the formula for victory,” he said when asked what he needs to do in order to secure a victory this weekend in New Jersey and get himself moving in the right direction again, adding that doing so will “validate all the hard work.”
Saturday’s Fight By Fight Preview
For Spivac, that hard work never stops, and while the critical results have not yet gone his way, at no point has the “Polar Bear” gotten discouraged. Instead, he’s taken the setbacks in stride, recognized them as growth opportunities, and worked to start another push towards the top of the division.
And he plans to do that again this weekend.
“One solid win and I’m back in the race,” he said in regards to his ongoing quest to break into the Top 5 and eventually challenge for championship gold. “(So this weekend, I need to) get the win, and then keep climbing towards the title.”
