For most fighters, the book on beating Japanese grappling legend Shinya Aoki begins and ends with chapter one - keep the fight on the feet and avoid going to the ground at all costs.
Try telling that to New Zealand's Ev Ting.
On Sunday (NZ time), the Kiwi lightweight livewire will square off with the iconic Japanese fighter in a title eliminator at ONE Championship's blockbuster 'Kingdom of Heroes' event in Bangkok.
Ting cares little for Aoki's storied pedigree in the complex art of the ground game and is far from intimidated by the prospect of hitting the mat with the several-time world champion grappler.
"I've been training on the ground consistently 10 years now," Ting told Newshub. "I'm very familiar with positions and I know where the threats are when they're presented.
"I'm not gonna lay there and be, 'oh no, a legend is on top of me', because that's what some people do. If he gets me down, I'm going to work my game right away.
"I've tapped out black belts before. It's not that I don't want to roll with him - I'm just going to stick with my strengths."
Those strengths lie in his crisp, quick and deceptively powerful striking ability, which represent the quickest and most efficient path to victory for 'ET'.
"If I was to fight him in straight kickboxing 10 times, I would win 10 times.
"If he can get past my movement and striking, then he'll deserve the luxury of hugging me - but he's gotta get past my first few lines of defence.
"My goal is stay patient, but in saying that, I'm hungry. If he does present the opportunity, I'm going to fly my knee into his chin.
"If I can land half the strikes I did against Koji, I can see Aoki folding and breaking mentally."
Ting is referring to his last bout against another Japanese veteran, Koji Ando, in which he dictated terms the entire contest, lighting Ando up with the kind of shots that would've seen lesser chins fold on his way to a convincing unanimous decision win.
This time, the stakes are much higher, with the victor scheduled to advance to contest the lightweight strap at ONE's debut show in Tokyo in March, but not quite as high as Ting hoped.
The timing of dual-division champion Martin Nguyen's decision to vacate one of his titles was a touch late for Ting, with the promotion opting to put the belt on the line in a fight between Eduard Folayang and Amir Khan in November, rather than this weekend.
Ting's understandably disappointed, but the prospect of a rematch with Folayang - for whom he has plenty of admiration - is something he can't help, but crack a smile over.
He came up short in a razor-close title challenge against the Filipino back in April 2017, the judges awarding a dubious decision win to 'The Landslide'.
"I'm a fan of Eduard Folayang. I feel like he's still the lightweight champion in some way.
"He embraces a lot of the values of martial arts, has a good work ethic and he deserves to be champion.
"In saying that, we have unfinished business. Under any judging criteria, that decision was questionable."
While there won’t be any gold on the line in the Thai capital, Ting believes a win over a fighter of Aoki's calibre is just as valuable to his stocks.
The former ONE and DREAM world champion was a figurehead of the now defunct Pride Fighting Championship, one of MMA's pioneering and most revered promotions.The 35-year-old is a true veteran, amassing a mammoth 41-8 record through his 15-year professional tenure.
"Shinya's name and credentials speak for themselves," says Ting.
"I felt like this fight was worthy of a title but it's alright, I'm really grateful to be in the position I'm in. I'm still really excited to be in this position and test my skills against a legend."
And the 29-year-old will have plenty of homegrown support in his corner at Impact Arena, with gymmates from his NZ headquarters, Auckland MMA, joining him in town for renowned Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition 'Copa de Bangkok'.
That crew includes partner Tuyet Nguyen, whom he will have just enough time to sneak away and offer some support to, before she returns the favour at his own bout later in the evening.
"My fight's tough, but my respect goes to her," says Ting, referring to her heavy schedule of eight matches in one day.
As for Aoki's fate?
"In my head, I'm going to knock him out in the first round, but I'm prepared to go all three rounds and neutralise his game. This time, I'm a lot hungrier to get a finish and really make a statement to the world.
"But I'll just flick the switch, get in my state of flow and whatever happens from there is meant to be."
ONE Championship - Asia's largest sports league - continues its ground-breaking approach to the world of combat by headlining this weekend's event with a boxing match, featuring local hero Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, who'll defend his WBC Flyweight World Championship against Iran Diaz of Mexico.
You can watch the entire event free of charge here from 11:30pm Saturday
Newhsub.
