Looking back on his two fights in 2016 in which he picked up a victory in one and a loss in the other, welterweight up and comer Jordon Larson doesn’t believe the outcomes changed him. It’s been more a personnel change at his gym that had the most impact on Larson last year.
“It was a mixed bag of results,” said Larson to MMAWeekly.com. “I had a really good win early in the year (against Johnathan Thomson). And then my last fight against Ben Neumann I got tunnel-visioned a little bit (and ended up with a loss).
“Those wins and losses didn’t affect my day to day training. The focus of 2016 since we got a new coach at Power MMA was just adjusting to his style and getting better.”
Larson (7-3) will look to rebound against veteran Dakota Cochrane (27-11) in a main card 170-pound bout at LFA: Sioux Falls Fight Night 1 on Friday in Sioux Falls, S.D., to be streamed live on FloCombat.com.
“Dakota is a veteran who has been there and done that,” said Larson. “He has almost 40 fights. He’s explosive. He’s got some flying knees that he loves to throw when people try to attempt takedowns without setting them up. He likes to kind of turn it into a brawl.
“For me, I want to use my range that I have – I think this is my first time fighting somebody shorter than me since I turned pro – so use my range and distance and dictate the pace.”
While the experience level on paper favors Cochrane, Larson feels that he has been able to capitalize enough in his journey of MMA to not make it an issue.
“It depends a lot on who you’ve fought,” Larson said. “For a lot of people records don’t really paint the whole picture; and that can go either way on that.
“I would say that experience definitely plays a part just because of the fact of being in the cage and being comfortable with the whole process. With myself I’ve been able to absorb a lot of that big show and in-cage experience, so it’s not going to hinder me or change my game plan. It just tells me he’s going to show up to fight.”
While the UFC is definitely a goal, Larson is prepared to take his time, thus hopefully insuring a more advantageous transition.
“I’ve said this a couple times now, but I’m not trying to race to get there anymore because you need to enjoy the journey on the way to success and achieving our goals,” said Larson. “In 2017 the goal is to just get better, and every time I go out there get the win, and the rest will sort itself it out.”
