By Mark Daniels
Boston Herald
The thing Joe Lauzon remembers the most about fighting in TD Garden was the noise.
As he walked to the cage, for his UFC 118 bout with Gabe Ruediger, the crowd exploded. The sound was deafening and it got only louder when the timekeeper rang the bell. For the first time in his career, the Bridgewater native couldn’t hear his corner.
But on that August night, three years ago, it didn’t make a difference. Lauzon ran through Ruediger, dominating and submitting his opponent at 2:01 of the first round. It’s the 28-year-old’s favorite moment of his career.
So you could understand his excitement when the UFC announced last week that Lauzon will face Michael Johnson at the Garden on Aug. 17 for the debut of “UFC on Fox Sports 1.”
“I’m pumped about it,” Lauzon said. “I always have a tough time (picking my favorite moment). I kind of flip-flop between the best moment of my career being, you know, smashing Gabe at home and the crowd going crazy. I’m usually really in tune with my corner and hearing everything they say and things like that. (I remember) just not being able to hear anything, just the roar being insane.
“That and then the Melvin (Guillard) fight (are favorites), because that fight was a huge fight story and how it all went down was awesome. It’s a tossup for the most part, but I have to go with the Boston fight. It was incredible being at home and having so many crazy friends and family in the crowd, going bananas. It was awesome.”
Lauzon (22-8) is coming off a hard-fought decision loss to Jim Miller at UFC 155 in December. He’s hoping to get back to his winning ways against Johnson (12-8). Johnson, 26, is an athletic and strong lightweight. He’s 4-4 in the UFC and is coming off successive losses to Mylers Jury and Reza Madadi.
On paper, Lauzon is the heavy favorite. He has more experience and has fought tougher competition. But the odds are the last thing on the lightweight’s mind.
“I definitely like the matchup. It’s nice being able to have someone who is aggressive and comes forward and brings it,” Lauzon said. “I never really buy into what anyone likes to say prefight because it’s a fight and anything can happen. There’s all kind of crazy upsets all the time. Every single card there are a few major, major upsets. I don’t want to go into any kind of fight thinking, ‘Oh, everyone thinks I’m going to win or I don’t have to train hard or it’s an easy fight.’ It’s never an easy fight. It’s always a tough fight.”
“I’m just going to do my thing. Go out there, put on a good show and try to bring home a submission of the night.”
Also expected to be on “UFC on Fox Sports 1” card is a matchup between welterweights Thiago Alves and Matt Brown.
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