Alberto Crane Wins Again, Eyes Big Stage

Wednesday, October 22, 2008 - by Mick Hammond - MMAWeekly.com

Alberto Crane knows he did poorly in his first shot at MMA’s biggest stage. Two losses in the Ultimate Fighting Championship followed by yet another outside the promotion placed him on the rebuilding track.

Wanting to prove that he is more than the sum of three fights, Crane took a hard look at himself and made the decision to dedicate all resources towards having the kind of success at the higher levels of the sport that he did when he initially started out undefeated in his first nine fights.

A move to Los Angeles and an expanded training regime have begun to pay dividends, as he has won two fights in a row, including this past weekend’s quick dismantling of Richard Villes for the new Eminent Domain Productions show.

“It was awesome fighting back in New Mexico again,” said Crane of Saturday’s bout. “I think it would have been better if (the fight) had gone a little longer, just for the experience of it, but I was happy to get the win.”

Heading into the fight, Crane had to be on upset watch, as his opponent, Richard Villes had defeated former UFC fighter Drew Fickett in his previous fight.

“You had to respect Richard Villes because of his win over Drew Fickett in his last fight, but I think he did get lucky in that fight,” commented Crane. “I definitely respected him, but I thought I could take care of him early.”

As he predicted the fight went much to his expectations.

“We exchanged some punches and kicks, then I hit him with a left hook, dropped to a double-leg and took him down,” he recalled. “He actually tried to roll on a knee bar on me, so I took his back and choked him out – it was that quick.

The win puts Crane one step closer to his goal of returning to the big stages of MMA, where he feel he deserves to be, despite earlier disappointments.

“I belong there,” he stated. “I was coming off a long layoff and just didn’t start off on the right foot and it just kind of kept rolling that way.

“I am starting over. I’ve got to improve my stand-up and my MMA game, put about three wins together against good opponents and get back on the big stage where I think I belong.”

Even though he plans to take time off to focus on his wife’s impending delivery of twins in November, Crane expects to return to action before year’s end to help build momentum for push upwards.

“I’m tentatively booked for King of the Cage on a Dec. 6 event that they’re having (in New Mexico),” he said.

As he continues to improve on his already impressive jiu-jitsu credentials and become a more complete MMA fighter, Crane may not find himself out of the mix for too long, just as he predicts.

“I want to give a shout out to Walter Michelowski at Sityodtong in L.A., Justin Fortune, Dan Henderson and Heath Sims at Team Quest,” he concluded.

“I want to just keep improving and lay it out on the line for the fans on the big stage.”