Gegard Mousasi must be the calmest man in all of combat sports. After arriving in Japan Tuesday for his New Year's Eve fight with Gary Goodridge, Mousasi met with the media and looked relaxed almost to the point of boredom as he explained that he just found out he's fighting Goodridge under mixed martial arts rules a couple of days ago, and that he would have been just as happy to fight in MMA or in kickboxing or in boxing.
Mousasi shrugged his shoulders as he explained that he first thought he'd be participating in a K-1 fight on New Year's Eve, then thought he'd be skipping New Year's Eve in Japan altogether for a professional boxing match on January 8, only to learn over the weekend that his fight with Goodridge was set.
"Originally I was fighting Nishijima under K-1 rules, and it fell through," Mousasi said. "So, I took a boxing match on January 8, so I was training boxing. Then I heard several MMA opponents, then I thought I wouldn't fight at all. Finally a fight was confirmed, and I found out the rules the day I left for Japan."
Some fighters won't take a fight on any less than eight weeks' notice, because they insist on having a full training camp to prepare. Mousasi is the polar opposite of that approach: He'll fight anyone, anywhere, any time, under any combat sports rules. It's great to see.
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