James Krause (photo via Twitter)

By Kelsey Mowatt

Shane Campbell may have over 70 professional kickboxing fights under his belt, but James Krause doesn’t believe his path to victory on Sunday, necessarily has to come on the ground.

The lightweights are scheduled to fight at UFC Fight Night 83 on February 21st, which will go down at Pittsburgh’s Consol Energy Center. In Campbell, Krause will take on a man who amassed a 62-9 record in kickboxing, and won several Muay Thai championships along the way.

Krause, however, has also showcased a dangerous striking pedigree in his own right, which is why he recently said this on Full Contact Fighter Radio:

“I’m going to take the fight to the ground at some point, just to mix things up, this is MMA, it’s not kickboxing,” said Krause. “If he wants to kickbox he needs to go back to Canada or wherever the hell he’s done that before. It’s a thing where, am I looking for a takedown? Sure. Do I need it? No. No, I don’t feel like I need it all…”

“Like I said, I’m not scared to strike with him at all,” the 29 year-old added. “I don’t think he brings anything to the table that I haven’t seen a thousand times. In my opinion, he’s a pretty basic guy. What he does, he does well and he does it hard. So, like I said, I have to respect that, but I definitely don’t fear anything that he brings to the table…”

Due to Krause’s (22-7) approach, as well as Campbell (12-3), the veteran is pretty confident that fans will be treated to an action packed bout.

“I like the fact that he’s not going to be hard to find,” said Krause, who submitted Daron Cruickshank in his last outing to move his UFC record to 3-3. “He’s going to right there in front of me, and I like those types of guys. They bring it, they’re there, they’re not running from me. I don’t have to worry, I don’t have to chase them around the ring or anything, he’s going to be right in front of me…”

UFC FN 83 will be headlined by a welterweight bout between Donald Cerrone and Alex Oliveira.