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By: Chris Park, MMATorch UK Specialist
This Saturday in Germany, not one but two members of Team Rough House will aim to get back in the win column when the UFC returns to mainland Europe for only the second time in the organisation's history with UFC 122.
In one of the preliminary bouts on the card, "Slick" Nick Osipczak will go toe-to-toe with Duane "Bang" Ludwig in a bout that will see both men aiming to prevent a three-fight slide.
As one of the most impressive members of Team UK on The Ultimate Fighter's ninth season, Osipczak made his official debut at the finale of that ninth season when he submitted Frank Lester late in the very first round.
Osipczak then went on to hand Matt Riddle the first loss of his career with a third round TKO at UFC 105. That win in Manchester meant Osipczak kept his undefeated record intact, with all five of his professional wins coming via TKO or submission.
At UFC 114 in Abu Dhabi, Osipczak dropped a razor close decision to Rick Story. This was the first time in his career that Osipczak had visited the judges' scorecards and the split-decision between these two in April could have gone either way.
A second defeat, this time at the hands of Greg Soto at UFC 118 in Boston, has motivated Osipczak to get things back on track when he makes the short trip to Germany to tackle Ludwig.
"I know I'm improving every fight," Osipczak told MMATorch. "I am used to finishing fights, so I want nothing more than to get back to [my] winning ways and have a long and happy career with the UFC! I've made a few changes [for this fight], the main one being I've been able to concentrate more on my striking for this fight.
"I've also approached my weight cut differently; I normally do the whole drop in a week, but have started thinking that just because I can do that, doesn't mean I should be. It might be too much for my body, and I feel that this may be the reason why I've not been performing as well I should be in the later rounds. So now I'm spreading the weight drop over three weeks to make it less drastic, and hopefully we will see better results."
Team Rough House has had its fair share of bad luck in 2010, with Dean Amasinger breaking his arm, the whole debacle that surrounded Nik Lentz and his [lack of a] game plan against Andre Winner, not to mention the Paul Daley incident. This Saturday, Osipczak will have a golden opportunity to not just raise his own stock in the UFC, but to end 2010 on a high note for the whole team.
"Dean Amasinger, Paul Daley and Jimmy Wallhead have all won recently so the Rough House is still getting results, just not as consistently as one point last year. After any high a low has to follow though, but yes - when me and [Andre Winner] get our victories it will be very sweet and set the tone nicely for 2011."
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Chris Park is the MMATorch UK Specialist and guest columnist at ESPN.co.uk. Please email any comments or questions to Chris at; mmatorchuk@gmail.com or look us up at http://www.facebook.com/mmatorchuk2 our new MMATorch Facebook home for UK Fans!
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