Paul Craig Feels Revitalized Ahead Of Middleweight Debut (2024)

After defeating Vinicius Moreira with a Performance of the Night earning submission, Paul Craig went on a six-fight unbeaten run that included a submission victory over Nikita Krylov and former light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill.

That success came to a screeching halt when Craig suffered back-to-back defeats to Volkan Oezdemir and Johnny Walker. While the losses stung, Craig discovered something that may change the trajectory of his future in the UFC.

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Looking back at his loss to Walker, Craig noticed that the size discrepancy between him and his opponent was too much to overcome, regardless of who he felt had a better skill set.

“The biggest takeaway was the weight advantage,” Craig said about fighting Walker. “When you look at these two different fighters in the same weight division, we both made 205 but only one person in that fight ended up bulking their way up to the heavyweight limit while the other just stayed the same.

“I didn’t cut any weight and I think that’s part of the process of being a fighter. There needs to be a bit of fire in your belly when it comes to that weight cut. If you’re doing it easy and there’s no fight in it, then it’s probably a negative effect on you.”

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Craig gathered his coaching staff and traveled to the Las Vegas and the UFC Performance Institute to assess if making the move to middleweight was a smart and safe option.

“When I first started MMA, I wasn’t the most muscular,” Craig said. “I carried a little bit of excess weight that I didn’t need. Carried a little bit of weight in my legs. My upper body, no one ever looked at me and said, ‘He’s in great shape.’ So, I believe I was playing at light heavyweight, and I didn’t have the knowledge or confidence to make that jump.”

“Now we get better nutritionists, work with strength and conditioning guys, work with my coaches and you end up finding that, you know what, I can make this. We went to the [UFC Performance Institute] and from the PI, they looked at the numbers and said, ‘Yep, Paul, officially you can make [186 pounds] but it’s going to take a bit of work.”

Craig’s extra work consisted of a strict diet and training regimen where he needed to watch his weight daily, including tracking calories and macros, to make sure the transition to 185 pounds wouldn’t have drastic effects on his physical output.

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Craig also studied his numbers in the gym diligently. While he was moving similar weights on the bar for compound movements like bench press and back squat compared to previous camps, the real difference maker was seen during cardio sessions. On Airdyne bikes and during sprints, Craig noticed far more output and currently feels like he’s in the best shape of his life at a heart rate of 35 beats per minute.

“This is my first official attempt at middleweight,” Craig said. “There’s been a few eye openers in cutting weight. I was a light heavyweight for 12 years of my career and I’ve decided to move down. I feel much better in my skin, I feel much better in my body. I look physically more muscular. Even though it’s just a little bit of muscle, my body fat has gone way down, so all the kinds of things, all the numbers that I’m producing in training have been through the roof. So what I’m expecting to showcase on Saturday night is Paul Craig 2.0.”

While Craig is physically in the best shape of his life, technically speaking he believes he’s reached new heights alongside head coach James Doolan at Higher Level Martial Arts in Whitburn, Scotland. Known for his excellent grappling, Craig’s noticed massive improvements in his striking this training camp and has a knockout on his radar in his future at 185 pounds.

“This is the first time where I believe it’s a full camp where I’ve worked with guys at a higher level,” Craig said. “James Doolan, my new head coach, is an amazing striking coach but he’s also an amazing MMA coach. He’s taken what makes me Paul Craig and what fans like in [my] jiu-jitsu and added to it. I believe in the last six months since fighting Johnny Walker, my striking has come leaps and bounds. Working with high level striking coaches, high level strikers has definitely made a huge difference.”

“I would love to get a knockout. It’s one of the things I’ve never had on my record. I’ve had TKOs, I’ve maybe wobbled people but I’ve never had an official knockout. I’d love to have one by the time I finish my career. But I do believe when you’re a jiu-jitsu guy, it’s so much easier to drag him to the mat, pull guard and look for that triangle [choke]. I think all the fans out there are like, ‘Paul Craig, first round submission triangle.’ That’s what I’m looking for.”

Craig officially enters the middleweight division this Saturday at UFC Fight Night: Aspinall vs Tybura, when he faces Andre Muniz in London. Like Craig, Muniz is amongst the very best grapplers in the UFC with 15 of his 23 professional wins coming by submission. Craig is unbothered by those statistics and plans on using all aspects of his game to earn his first win in a new weight division.

“Being the Scottish jiu-jitsu guy in the light heavyweight division and now moving down to the middleweight division, everybody’s going to be watching, especially against a good grappler in Muniz,” Craig said. “It’s going to be interesting to see how my jiu-jitsu feels at middleweight, but not only that, against a high-level jiu-jitsu black belt. Normally what happens when two grapplers meet is the two of them stand up and decide to be strikers. I’m going to mix it up. I’m going to take the fight to him [and] I’m going to drag him to the mat when the time feels right.”