At this month’s UFC 200, bonus collector Joe Lauzon once again showed off his finishing skills when he became the first fighter to ever truly stop Diego Sanchez with strikes.

Lauzon (26-11 MMA, 13-8 UFC) might not be the most consistent when it comes to the end result, but, with 12 finishes among his 13 octagon wins, he has certainly has kept a pattern as to how his triumphs come by. Against Sanchez (26-9 MMA, 15-9 UFC), it took him only 86 seconds to seal the deal, showing just how costly it can be to let a finisher find his groove.

“I think sometimes I can smell blood from the locker room,” Lauzon told MMAjunkie Radio. “ I don’t need to wait too long. I usually try to go at people and get them. I lot of people said that they thought Diego had the cardio advantage at the elevation, he’s an absolute maniac about being in shape and stuff like that.

“I was in really good shape, I was ready to go 15 minutes. But it’s tough to compete with some of the training in elevation, and doing this and doing that, doing all this craziness, and I wanted to be sharp. We were ready to go in there and push as hard as we can for as long as we could. If it was seven minutes or 15 minutes, we were going to give it our all. Fortunately, it took 90 seconds.”

At 32, Lauzon is only a couple of months away from his 10th UFC anniversary. His inaugural bout with the promotion – in September 2006, against Jens Pulver at UFC 63 – granted him a now-extinct ‘Knockout of the Night’ bonus that seemed to only set the pace for the 13 post-fight honors that were yet to come.

Looking back at an octagon run filled with high points, Lauzon now believes that UFC 200 was the highest of them all. An honor, he acknowledges, greatly helped by having yet another fan-favorite on the opposite end.

“I think it was a big deal,” Lauzon said. “Everything just came together properly. Huge card, great opponent, great fight, great finish. We got a bonus. Probably my best moment, I’d say.

“Usually, when I bump into people, they go ‘I’m pulling for you,’ even if they’re lying to me. They just tell me they’re pulling for me. But there were so many people like, ‘I don’t know who to pick, you or Diego, I’m a huge fan of you both,’ and I get it because I’m in that same boat. I’m a huge Diego fan. His fights, I’m usually always pulling for him.”

And don’t think Lauzon is losing any steam. In fact, it’s quite the contrary. After urging people to stop asking for Sanchez’s retirement, he says he is ready to get right back in sooner rather than later. But don’t expect him to go around making any call-outs. In fact, the mention of a fellow lightweight who has been known to ask for opponents was enough to tick him.

“(Kevin Lee) calls out everyone,” Lauzon said. “I don’t know if he’s as bad as Norman Parke about calling people out, but Kevin Lee is so bad. Any time anyone fights, he’s calling him out nonstop. I generally don’t even acknowledge people that do that, cause I think it’s just stupid and annoying. But I don’t know. I don’t care.”

“I’m always in shape. I’m very healthy. So I’m going to take it easy this week, probably be back to training on Monday, full steam ahead. If someone gets hurt, maybe hop in on a short-notice fight. If not, maybe the Madison Square Garden card (UFC 205) or the New Year’s card. That’s kind of where my head is at. I don’t really know. I’ll be in shape, I’ll be ready to go. I’ll see what happens.”

The UFC today announced Lauzon would face off with Jim Miller(26-8 MMA, 15-7 UFC) in a rematch at UFC on FOX 21. The event takes place Aug. 27 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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