Athletes
Vicente Luque Is Rested, Recharged And Motivated
"The Silent Assassin" Believes He Has All The Right Pieces Lined Up Ahead Of His Main Event As Rafael Dos Anjos
Heading into 2022, Vicente Luque was making himself hard to ignore. “The Silent Assassin” had tallied a 14-3 record with 13 finishes in the Octagon and built a reputation as one of the most entertaining fighters on the roster.
Despite that, Luque still needed a signature win to crack the title picture, and with Kamaru Usman mowing down challengers at that point, the Brazilian wasn’t far off from getting his chance. However, by the time Leon Edwards head-kicked his way to a championship belt at the end of August 2022, Luque had lost two in a row to Belal Muhammad and Geoff Neal.
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Luque believes he came back too quickly after his main event rematch with Muhammad, which led to his disappointing result to Neal, which was the first knockout loss of his career. Since then, Luque remained on the sidelines regrouping for another go.
“I think the bad results bring kind of a different look (at) our career,” Luque told UFC.com. “I started to have to analyze and improve. I would say the 2022 was, for me, a year of improvement, a year of pointing out all the mistakes that I've been making, correcting that and coming back in 2023 as the best version of me.”
Rise Of Vicente Luque
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Rise Of Vicente Luque
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One of the biggest changes Luque made was moving his family to Florida so he could train full-time at Kill Cliff FC. Although Luque regularly made stops to the South Florida training hub, bringing his wife and son along with him meant leaving the place they’ve always called home.
Familiar faces always help, though, and Luque has that at Kill Cliff. He considers Gilbert Burns his “brother,” and also cited Gregory Rodrigues as another person whose presence has helped the Luque clan acclimate to the United States. From their kids to their spouses, Luque said having people in the same lifestyle as himself helps immensely.
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The move also allowed Luque access to the myriad resources available in South Florida. He spent more time grappling than he ever had in the past, and he just focused on improving his skill set rather than going camp to camp.
“I think that training without having a fight in mind kind of brought back the joy of martial arts for me,” Luque said. “I had gotten to a point where I was fighting very, very often, and that was moving me up (the rankings). I was winning, I was going up the division and just developing my career. That was nice, but I didn't start doing this for the results. I started doing it for the love of the martial arts. That side of it, I had lost a little bit.
“What I learned from this is I need to balance that out more because I have to be competitive, I have to care about results. I have to go out there, perform and be the best fighter. That's obvious. But also, after that happens, I got to balance out and just have some time for me to enjoy martial arts as its pure form just for what it is.”
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Another aspect of Luque’s time away was the realigning of his focus. Although he isn’t changing his fan-favorite style any time soon – he still enthusiastically describes himself as a “finisher” – he doesn’t want to take fights for the sake of staying active. He wants fights that “make sense” for him.
The 31-year-old then leapt at another opportunity to headline an event. The fact that it comes against a former champion in Rafael Dos Anjos made it all the sweeter. Luque called his countryman an “idol” of his, but he won’t get caught up in all of that once the Octagon door closes on August 12.
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“When the fight was offered in the first weeks after was offered, I was like, ‘Man, I'm going to fight RDA. I can't believe that,’” Luque said. “I had that (feeling) with Woodley, as well. When I fought Woodley, I was like, ‘Man, I'm going to fight Woodley,’ but when it comes to the fight, I've trained so much, I visualize this fight so many times (that) when I step in there, it’s not personal anymore. The emotions are aside, and now it's about competing, about beating that guy that is in front of me.”
In terms of what he visualizes, Luque anticipates a grind of a fight. Dos Anjos has only been finished four times in his 46-fight, 19-year career. If anyone knows how to make a fight grimy and take advantage of all his experience, it’s Dos Anjos.
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That said, Luque still expects to finish the fight before judges are needed, the fourth or fifth round to be more specific. After more than a year away, Luque knows he needs to make a statement in order to throw his hat back into the reshuffled title picture at 170 pounds, and taking out a former champion could do just that.
“I think that it’s the perfect fight, considering everything that is happening,” Luque said. “The division is moving. We have a new champion. We don't know who's going to fight for the title next. A win over a guy like RDA that sets me up to maybe mess up the division again and get in that mix, for sure.”
UFC Fight Night: Luque vs Dos Anjos took place live from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas on August 12, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
