Paul Buentello on Kongo: "He's not going to want to stand."

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"It depends on which Kongo comes out. It totally depends if he's going for the take downs and trying to hold people down, or if it's the Kongo that wants to stand and strike. It all depends on which Kongo shows up. No matter what fight I get into, everybody knows which Paul Buentello is going to show up: It's going to be a stand up war. We're thinking he's going to go for a take down. He's not going to want to stand. That's our whole game plan, he's not going to stand at all."-Paul Buentello

Hard-hitting UFC heavyweight Paul Buentello talks about his game plan going into his upcoming fight against French striker Cheick Kongo at UFC on Versus 1 on March 21 in Broomfield, Colorado.

Having finished 17 of his 27 career wins by KO or TKO, Buentello is looking to put on a stand up war with Kongo, however, Buentello is cautious of takedown attempts from Kongo. Kongo's nasty clinch work, and ground-and-pound, has brutalized the likes of Mirko Cro Cop and Mostapha Al-Turk inside of the Octagon.

Helping Buentello with his ground work, has been UFC veteran and TUF 10 assistant coach Mike Van Arsdale, who is a decorated high school and collegiate wrestler, and won the 1988 NCAA Division I collegiate wrestling champion at 167 lb (76 kg), while competing for Iowa State University.

Buentello decided to move to a new camp for this fight, and has been training at Grudge MMA in Denver, Colorado under the guidance of Trevor Wittman, while working alongside UFC heavyweights Shane Carwin and Brendan Schaub.

As you may recall, less then a month before his Octagon return fight at UFC 107 in December, Buentello was suspended from his longtime team, American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California. The suspension stems from Buentello's decision to hire a manager other than ‘Crazy' Bob Cook, who is one of the head trainers at AKA.

"The Headhunter" will likely be fighting for his UFC job, as he is coming off a hard-fought majority decision loss to Stefan Struve at the aforementioned UFC 107 event in December. Prior to the loss, he put together 5-1 mark with rival promotions Strikeforce and Affliction. His only loss during the successful stretch came against Alistair Overeem in a bout for the first ever Strikeforce heavyweight title in November 2007.

Buentello sports a 3-2 UFC record, which includes a solid 3-1 record in his first stint with the promotion from February 2005 to February 2006, with other Octagon wins over the late Justin Eilers, Gilbert Aldana, and Kevin Jordan. His only other UFC loss came at the lethal hands of Andrei Arlovski in a UFC heavyweight title bout at UFC 55.