Tim Elliott says fans will see a very different version of him when he meets Steve Erceg at UFC Fight Night 275 at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia.
Preparing for Saturday’s bout, Elliott abandoned his usual strength and conditioning routine and built his entire camp around live combat work. He removed running and lifting from his schedule and centered his training on sparring three or four times a week, live grappling, and hard drilling.
"I did my camp completely different this time," Elliott said. "I completely cut out strength and conditioning, running, lifting. I didn't do any of that. I sparred. I sparred three or four times a week. I grappled live. I drilled hard. I thought maybe it was going to bother my cardio. But this is the first fight I've ever gone into where I'm not limping into the cage. I feel good, strong. I'm getting older but I've changed the way that I train. This is the least injured I've ever gone into a fight. Just sparring. Going hard. Going live. I'm not as banged up. I was killing myself doing two or three sessions a day. Now, I just go train hard once a day. I spar and go home and rest."
Elliott, who has competed 21 times in the UFC without a TKO or knockout, has a clear goal in mind against Erceg. "... I'm looking for a knockout. I know everybody says that. I don't have a knockout yet in the UFC. But again, this camp was different. I wasn't taking guys down. I was beating guys' ass in the gym. So I'm going to try to do that."
