Wellington Turman had to make quite a switch after going from a cancelled preliminary bout with Rodolfo Vieira in January to a co-main event clash with Misha Cirkunov at Saturday night’s UFC Vegas 49 event, but counted on advice from a few notable teammates to prepare for the opportunity.
Turman had spent three months training for Vieira, the jiu jitsu master. The match took place in Las Vegas four weeks after Vieira’s withdrawal. Turman admitted to MMA Fighting, that Vieira is “very different”, but he stated that he was prepared for the challenge by working with Glover Teixeira (UFC light heavyweight champion) and Alex Pereira (ex-two-division GLORY champ).
“Rodolfo is a great jiujitsu fighter, but Cirkunov has dangerous submissions and does well in jiujitsu,” Turman stated. He is more versatile [than Vieira] due to his good striking. Because we train with [Pereira] guys, and Glover in different styles, everything is possible. We can adapt well because we’re always ready for everything.”
Cirkunov lost to Teixeira in 2017, by a first-round TKO on FOX 26.. Years have passed since that night, and Turman hopes to replicate the outcome on Saturday.
“We beat him once, we’ll beat him again,” Turman said with a laugh. “[Teixeira] has done the hard part, which is fight him there and knock him out nicely, so he gave me some tips, but that will stay off the record. The fight will start and you’ll be notified. I will know when the fight starts because he told me about how the man fights. .”
Coming off a decision victory over Sam Alvey, Turman predicts he’ll score his first finish under the UFC banner when he and Cirkunov finally collide.
” I see myself [winning] looking like Glover, who used a takedown that I enjoy and took him down,” Turman stated. “He ended up on top [position] and knocked him out, so I envision myself knocking him out with the ground-and-pound. We’ll do a similar game.”
