Constantinos Philippou out to prove he's tough enough to rebound from devastating loss

CINCINNATI – Constantinos Philippou had a few misconceptions coming into the UFC.

He was under the impression he couldn’t be taken down. Nick Catone and Francis Carmont proved him wrong. He thought he could never be dropped by a body shot. Luke Rockhold showed him otherwise.

Philippou is a proud guy with a tough East Coast exterior. But he said his eyes are open now, and he has his most recent opponent to thank for that.

“Rockhold, in a weird way, helped me get my head together and get back to basics again and realize I was missing a lot of stuff,” Philippou (12-4 MMA, 5-3 UFC) told MMAjunkie. “I went back and fixed a lot of them, and I still have a lot of things that I need to fix. But nobody’s perfect, right?”

The 34-year-old UFC middleweight could take a step toward evolution when he meets Lorenz Larkin (14-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) on Saturday at UFC Fight 40 in a co-headliner at Cincinnati’s U.S. Bank Arena. He could also slide further down the division’s ladder if he is unable to apply the lessons learned from Rockhold, who is again lingering on the cusp of a title shot.

Things will march on regardless. Philippou wasn’t necessarily thankful to his teachers, but he is a full-time fighter and aims to take what he can from them as his career moves toward an uncertain end.

“You realize that anything can happen, and I kept doing it to my opponents for years, and I thought that it could never happen to me,” he said. “But I just realized that, yes, I’m human, and my time will come, like everyone in MMA. Sooner or later, everyone gets knocked down or knocked out.

“The question is, are you tough enough to come back? I feel that I am, and I’m standing right here right now.”

Philippou is ready to go, but he needs more than a comeback. If he loses on Saturday night, he will have dropped three straight bouts. The UFC tends to keep crowd-pleasing sluggers around, and so he might get another chance or two on a preliminary card against an up-and-comer. But he also might be released from his contract, and his chance of fighting any meaningful opponents will fade.

The native of Greece got his start in the UFC while training with current middleweight champion Chris Weidman at Team Serra-Longo in Long Island, N.Y. Now, he trains down the road with at the Bellmore Kickboxing Academy with another crop of up-and-coming UFC fighters.

Philippou said it’s been an adjustment working with a new team, but feels like he belongs.

“I felt like I didn’t belong [at Team Serra-Longo],” Philippou said. “Sometimes I felt like I was a stranger, so it was weird. Good trainers. I have nothing bad to say about them. Obviously, I had five wins in a row (with the team), so they did great teaching me everything. I just needed a change, and I found what I was looking for.”

So the environment appears to be set for the veteran fighter. Larkin is also looking for redemption, having lost a decision to Brad Tavares that brought him to a sub-.500 record in the octagon. Both fighters have learned lessons the hard way. On Saturday, fans will see who’s learned more.

For more on UFC Fight Night 40, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.