Having come off of four straight decisions, lightweight Christos Giagos was seeking to break that streak and get a finish when he took on Sean Soriano at UFC 262 this past May.
While Soriano stepping into the fight on short notice may have caused some issues with Giagos’ strategy, he was able to make adjustments quickly and pick up a second round submission victory, notching his fourth win in his last five fights in the process.
“My opponent got switched like a week, week and a half, before the fight,” Giagos told MMAWeekly.com. “I looked (Soriano) up and saw it was his second stint, like it was mine, and thought it was going to be a scrap.
“So I tried to keep my mind sharp with the change, and going out there I felt I did great. He was very tough, but going into the second round I capitalized on an opportunity when I saw it. He’s a cool guy and I train with him now.”
Having missed out on most of 2020, having two fights in the bag and one upcoming with in a 10 month stretch is something Giagos is pleased to have happening.
“I love that I’m being active,” said Giagos. “It’s definitely what I want to be doing coming off of injury. I felt like I’ve come a long way, developed some hype around me, and want to keep it going.”
On September 18 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Giagos (19-8) will look to pick up his third win in a row when he faces Arman Tsarukyan (15-2) in a preliminary 155-pound bout at UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Spann.
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“This is a tough match-up,” Giagos said of Tsarukyan. “There’s a lot of hype behind this guy. A lot of people are telling me that he’s good. I think I deserve to be in the Top 15 and I know I’m good enough. I think it’s going to be a hard fought fight.
“I think whoever shows up is going to get their hand raised. I see this going a lot of different ways, but focus to never settle, never let him get comfortable, keep the pace going, and the harder worker will get his hand raised.”
After attending to his personal life in early October, Giagos is looking forward to getting things going once more to close out his 2021.
“I kind of see what the UFC wants from me and go from there,” said Giagos. “I want to take a little bit of a break to get married on October 2, then after that I’ll be right back to it.”