UFC Fight Night 31's James Krause just glad to be getting back to work

James Krause is carrying a new mindset into his second UFC fight, and he seems to sum it up in one word: Chill.

Krause (20-4 MMA, 1-0 UFC) meets Bobby Green (20-5 MMA, 1-0 UFC) to close out the preliminary card of today’s “UFC Fight Night 31: Fight for the Troops 3? show. The fight airs on FOX Sports 1 ahead of a main card on the same channel and takes place at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.

Krause won his UFC debut in June, and picked up a double bonus in the process when he submitted Sam Stout at UFC 161 for both “Fight of the Night” and “Submission of the Night.”

The run he’s been on, with seven straight wins to get his short-notice UFC call, and now eight in a row after beating Stout, has seen him with a better mindset.

“It’s a little bit of everything,” Krause told MMAjunkie.com Radio. “Around that time that everything started changing for me, I got with my boxing coach, Austen Ford, and he helped a lot. I took my mental training to the next level and I do a lot of visualization. It’s helping me become a better fighter and a better person. And I think I’ve got a very legitimate strength and conditioning coach. The combination of those things happening all at once really just took me to the next level.”

The mental side of that has him not really worrying as much about the fight itself – the hardest part was the weight cut, and that’s over.

In fact, Krause said the opponent doesn’t even matter to him. His fight was getting to the fight itself, and now he believes it’s time to have fun against a fighter he looks up to.

“For me, there’s only one fight, and that’s the weight cut,” he said. “I’ve been working for the last two months to fight. I’m a pretty big lightweight, so I cut a good amount. But I just like to have fun on the day of the fight.

“I could be at the same dressing room as Bobby and warm up next to him and then go out and fight him. Bobby seems like a really cool guy. I think we’d probably be pretty good friends if we weren’t fighting tomorrow. It’s just a mindset, I think. It’s a competition. I feel like I know Bobby – I see him every day in my head. It’s no big deal to me. I love watching him fight, and I’m a fan of his. I’d like to think he’s a fan of mine. But I don’t know if he feels that way or not.”

Green has a good streak of his own with five straight wins. He closed out his Strikeforce career with four straight wins, then won his UFC debut with a “Submission of the Night” over Jacob Volkmann in February. But an injury kept him out of a fight with Danny Castillo in July, so it’s been a long stretch of inactivity for him.

Krause knows Green might be dangerous on the ground, especially after his win over Volkmann. But he doesn’t believe Green can top him in that area.

“I think his ground game’s extremely underrated,” Krause said. “I don’t think it’s his technique as much as it is he just goes. He’s not afraid to press the action and take risks. I don’t think his is as good as mine. I don’t feel threatened by his ground game at all. I feel like I’m better everywhere. But I don’t think he’s going to be a fish out of the water if we do go to the ground.”

Regardless of where the fight goes, Krause said he’s just glad to be getting back to work.

“I really enjoyed the time off. It was prefect timing, and I wouldn’t have been mad if I would’ve waited a little longer,” he said. “But they immediately threw out Bobby Green, and I thought it was a great matchup for us. It’s a guy I want to fight, and I think the fans are going to win in this fight no matter the outcome. I’m excited to get after it.”

For the latest on UFC Fight Night 31, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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