On Friday night (Sept. 23, 2011), light heavyweight up-and-comer Lorenz Larkin will square off against Nick Rossborough in the main event for Strikeforce Challengers 19 at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.
Larkin is one of the Strikeforce promotion's most highly touted prospects and has been on quite a tear.
With a perfect mixed martial arts (MMA) record of 11-0, Larkin comes into his upcoming bout untarnished to this point in his career.
Nobody's perfect, but Larkin would like to stay that way as long as he possibly he can.
"The Monsoon" sat down with Pro MMA Radio's Larry Pepe to talk about his perfect record, his fight on Friday night and to discuss just how he got that nickname of his.
"You know what? I gave myself that nickname. When I was an amateur, believe it or not, my nickname was 'The Chihuahua.' When I kept fighting, I said, 'You know, if I go a little bit further in this sport, I think I might have to come up with a better nickname than that.' I started thinking about it, and, my older brother, his name is Monsoon. I started thinking about it and I said, "You know, that (monsoon) means: ‘a storm,' so it kinda goes with the fighting style. That's why I went with 'The Monsoon.'"
Fans who have had the pleasure to see Larkin fight are aware of just how apt the nickname is. Eight of his eleven wins have come by some form of knockout. His in-your-face style usually ends with opponents on their back and fans asking for more.
It's who he is. A leopard can't change his spots.
"I'm fortunate to be blessed that my style in of itself is exciting, so I don't really have to live up to the hype, you know what I mean? My style is already exciting. I think it's harder when people don't fight exciting and try to. I think that kinda throws off their whole game. It's almost like they're trying to hard."
Larkin talked about his perfect record and the pressure that comes along with that.
"I sat down and really thought about it, to myself, and it's not a burden to me because I'm not scared to lose. It might come one day and I'm not scared to lose, at all. They're gonna have to really hurt me and they're gonna really have to earn that win. It's not just gonna be a fluke. That's just how I go about it. If a guy's better than me and gets the win off me, I'll applaud him a hundred percent."
Originally, Larkin was supposed to fight fellow top prospect Virgil Zwicker. Unfortunately, Zwicker suffered a late training camp injury and was forced off the card, leaving Larkin with very little time to prepare for his new opponent, Rossborough. Larkin talked about the challenge of the last minute switch.
"We've been looking at his (Rossboro's) tape, but at the end of the day, I don't think anybody can be a hundred percent focused and prepared for a guy in a week. That's what it probably boils down to. I'm just gonna fight my fight."
At some point, the perfect record is bound to be tarnished. Nobody can avoid the loss column forever. Larkin is aware that it is am imminent reality at some point, but he doesn't believe this weekend will be when it goes down.
"He won't beat me. Not unless he's willing to go to Hell and smack the Devil and ultimately get out (of Hell) and make it home safe."
Be sure to tune in to Showtime at 11p.m. ET to watch Larkin and the rest of the fighters on the Challengers 19 card.
For updates on the Challengers series and all things Strikeforce related, keep your computers and internet ready devices locked on MMAmania.com!