LEONARD GARCIA VS. "MONSTAH" ON TUF FINALE

[complete]

LEONARD GARCIA VS. "MONSTAH" ON TUF FINALE
Friday, June 08, 2007 - by Ken Pishna - MMAWeekly.com

With two weeks to go until The Ultimate Fighter Finale on June 23rd in Las Vegas, details of some of the match-ups are coming to light. In addition to the main event pitting coaches Jens Pulver and BJ Penn, Roger Huerta has confirmed that he is fighting Doug Evans. Leonard Garcia has now confirmed that he is matched with The Ultimate Fighter Season 5 competitor Allen “Monstah” Berube on the finale.

“I’m very excited,” said Garcia about the fight. “Training has been going good. I took a week off after the Huerta fight [April 7th] and then got back in the gym and I’ve been there ever since. I’m up in Colorado right now working with Duane Ludwig on my stand-up, so I’m not swinging for the fences when I’m not supposed to.”

But Garcia’s new home, as it was prior to the Huerta fight, is with Greg Jackson’s fight team in New Mexico. “At first, for the Huerta fight, Greg was just getting me in shape, trying to make sure I could go all three rounds.” The Huerta fight was taken on short notice.

The focus now has changed says Garcia, “Now it is different, it’s more spot specific. Greg finds the gaps in my game and then we work on things to put it all together. My wrestling is coming along, my takedown defense is better…”

Not overlooking “Monstah”, Garcia is still stinging a little bit from his last fight with Huerta. In the fight of the night at UFC 69, the two battled it out for the three-round duration in a back and forth war. “I’m looking forward to Roger seeing my improvements because if we keep winning, I’d love to fight him again. I have a lot of respect for Roger. Maybe when the UFC goes to Mexico, we could do it again. He left a pretty bad taste in my mouth, so I’m working really hard to get that out.”