Just over a year since he debuted, Team Alpha Male featherweight Lance Palmer has proven himself to be just as adept a fighter as his more well-known teammates, as evidenced by his recent unanimous decision victory over Jon Washington at UVC 20 to claim the promotion’s 145-pound title.
“There are always things you can work on and pick apart, but from what I remember, I feel like I controlled the fight,” said Palmer. “I got takedowns where and when I wanted to get takedowns. I controlled the positioning for the most part; controlling the cage and where the fight went.”
A four-time All-American at Ohio State in wrestling, Palmer was asked if he feels the need to stick close to his ground-based style or if he feels any pressure to try to push other areas in his game.
“I’m always expanding my repertoire of things I like to do, but if I have to I can always go back to my wrestling,” he responded. “It’s kind of a little bit of both; it’s just staying sharp with my wrestling and not getting away from it too much, but it’s also not relying too much on it and being a mixed martial artist.”
Being a part of one of MMA’s premier teams, Alpha Male, has not only allowed Palmer to expand on his game, but do so amongst fighters he has common ground with and can use as examples heading forward in his career.
“Urijah Faber took me under his wing, and guys like Chad Mendes and TJ Dillashaw have a wrestling background and came up through the sport the same way; so I knew I was with a group of people who knew exactly what I needed to do to get to the next level of MMA,” said Palmer.
“We kind of coach each other and pick each other’s brains and pick each other apart a little bit, and I think that’s why our team is so strong. Just being able to follow through with what these guys have done, it’s worked for them, so I plan on following the same path and have it work out for me, too.”
Facing world-class competition in training allows Palmer the opportunity to know that as long as he holds true to what he’s able to do against his teammates, it should be more than enough than having to play to his opponent’s game to succeed.
“I train with the best guys in the world and I can’t let myself get caught up in that thing where you’re throwing punch for punch and all of that,” Palmer said. “I want to stay with my techniques I’ve learned with my team.
“(My teammates are) the level I want to compete at, so I don’t really want to fight to the level of my competition, my goal is to go out and control each fight and dominate each fight.”
Palmer told MMAWeekly.com that he hopes capturing a title in UVC will serve as a great foundation towards building himself up to the next chapter in his career.
“Right now, I’m just waiting for my next fight for RFA, and hopefully in that next two, next three fights, do what it takes to get to the next level,” he said.
“I’m just going to keep training and do my thing. I’ve got to win one fight at a time, so I’m just focused on my next one and we’ll see what happens after that.”
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