UFC 183 Notebook: Treasure Hunter

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There are few secrets regarding Joe Lauzon, his approach inside the cage and the results it has netted him.

A record 13 Ultimate Fighting Championship post-fight performance bonuses in tow, Lauzon will climb into the Octagon opposite Serra-Longo Fight Team export Al Iaquinta in a pivotal lightweight showcase at UFC 183 on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The 30-year-old Massachusetts native has rattled off back-to-back wins over “The Ultimate Fighter” winners Michael Chiesa and Mac Danzig, and he would like nothing more than to add Iaquinta to his list of victims.

Lauzon has compiled an 11-6 record and banked $635,000 in disclosed bonus money since arriving in the UFC in September 2006. While still a grappler at heart, he believes he has expanded on the weaponry he has at his disposal.

“My skill set has definitely gotten better,” Lauzon said. “My striking, my standup, is a lot better than it used to be, so before I kind of had to force the takedown more. Now it’s to the point that people know what I want to do. They know I want to get them on the ground, so they kind of hedge their bets a little bit and they’re defending takedowns and stuff like that. Because of that, I have to strike a little bit more, but every game plan is always about getting the fight to the ground as easy as possible, taking as little damage as possible. It’s just that you can’t always shoot in and take someone down every single time. You’ve got to set it up.”

Iaquinta, 27, has proven vulnerable to opportunistic grapplers in the past, as all three of his defeats have resulted in submission.

“I don’t ever want to game plan for a guy to make a mistake, because that means if he’s doing everything right, I’m going to lose,” Lauzon told Sherdog.com. “I like to make people make mistakes. I like to bring a lot of pressure [against my opponent]. I like to make him struggle and get frustrated and take advantage of his mistakes. He does make mistakes sometimes, especially against grapplers. If he makes a mistake, we’ll catch him.”

WRESTLING WITH REALITY

Miesha Tate seems to have a firm grasp on the reality of her situation.

“Cupcake” will collide with 2004 Olympic silver medalist Sara McMann in the feature slot on the Fox Sports 1-televised UFC 183 prelims, as she looks to pick up further steam in a bantamweight division ruled by undefeated champion Ronda Rousey. Tate enters the match on the strength of a modest two-fight winning streak, having bested Rin Nakai and Liz Carmouche in consecutive outings.

The 28-year-old former Strikeforce titleholder concedes that McMann’s wrestling prowess speaks for itself and can understand why oddsmakers have her listed as an underdog to the once-beaten South Carolinian.

“I think it’s just because she has higher credentials in her wrestling,” Tate said. “She’s undefeated [in MMA] other than losing to Ronda, so people have no reason to really doubt her. That was a quick fight with Ronda. She kind of just got caught with a liver shot, so it really wasn’t a fair assessment of what she could have done.

“Other than that, she’s beaten everyone using the wrestling and that’s why people don’t have reason to doubt her,” she added. “It’s my job to give them a reason.”

THIS & THAT

Anderson Silva is tied for third on the UFC’s all-time list for career victories with 16, along with Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell and Gleison Tibau. Only Georges St. Pierre (19) and Matt Hughes (18) have more ... Nick Diaz is one of three men to have held the Strikeforce welterweight championship. Nate Marquardt and Tarec Saffiedine are the others ... Resurgent middleweight Thales Leites has won 13 fights by submission: seven via arm-triangle choke, three via armbar, two via rear-naked choke and one via triangle armbar ... American Top Team’s Thiago Alves has not recorded consecutive victories since winning seven in a row between Oct. 10, 2006 and Oct. 25, 2008 ... Sara McMann lists four-time Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships gold medalist Marcelo Garcia and two-time Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler John Smith as her heroes ... Ed Herman is a five-time post-fight performance bonus winner, having banked two bonuses for “Fight of the Night,” two for “Submission of the Night” and one for “Knockout of the Night” ... The four men to whom Team Oyama’s Ian McCall has lost -- Joseph Benavidez, Demetrious Johnson, Dominick Cruz and Charlie Valencia -- own a cumulative 74-14-1 record ... Tom Watson has won titles inside the British Association of Mixed Martial Arts and Ultimate Challenge MMA promotions ... Jim Hettes hails from Kingston, Pa., a small, 2.2-square-mile town of a little more than 13,000 people in the northeastern quadrant of the Keystone State ... Only one of Ildemar Alcantara’s 20 professional wins have taken place outside of his native Brazil ... When Andy Enz was born on Aug. 15, 1991, the top five movies at the domestic box office list were “Hot Shots,” “Double Impact,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” “Doc Hollywood” and “Pure Luck.”

INSIDE THE VENUE

The MGM Grand Garden Arena opened in December 1993 and has played host to 30 of the 306 events the Ultimate Fighting Championship has staged in its history.