Paul Craig (photo via UFC / YouTube)

By FCF Staff

Paul Craig hasn’t been the betting lines favorite in most of his UFC appearances to date, and he’s been making a name for himself via come-from-behind wins. But, the Scottish fighter believes the underdog status he’s been frequently assigned has brought the most of out him.

Craig is coming off a late, third round submission win over Kennedy Nzechukwu at UFC Philadelphia, in a fight he appeared to be en route to losing. But, with less than a minute to go, the noted grappler caught Nzechukwu with a well-timed, triangle-choke to secure the win. The performance was very similar to Craig’s win over Magomed Ankalaev last year.

Since then, the 31-year-old appeared on the Eurobash podcast, and while discussing the underdog status he’s frequently had, Craig said this (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“It probably is negative to think that you’re constantly on the back foot, but I kind of like it,” said Craig. “I think we work better under that kind of pressure. When everyone believed in me, that’s when I took my first career loss. Against Tyson Pedro, everyone believed in me, everyone was writing him off and that was my biggest downfall, just the self-belief.

“When you’ve got that bit of doubt you’ve got to work harder. You’re waking up in the morning and you’re asking yourself, ‘What’s Kennedy Nzechukwu doing?’ It makes you push yourself that wee bit harder.”

“I like to feel like I’m the underdog,” he added. “And I like when people win money off me as well by me being the underdog. [I like it when] I get messages from people saying, ‘I’ve put a bet on you and I’ve got good odds’, I like getting the people that support me a wee bit of money…”

With the recent win, Craig evened his UFC record at 3-3 and pushed his overall record to 11-3.