LONDON – For a long time, Paul Craig had an up-and-down run in the UFC.

He basically never was involved in a boring fight. In his 21-fight pro career, he’s gone the distance just one time: a 2019 split draw with former light heavyweight champion Mauricio Rua. Every other time, he’s either finished his opponent or been stopped, himself.

And in his first two and half years in the UFC, he got stopped more than he was doing the stopping.

But these days, Paul is rolling. He’s 5-0-1 in his past six with just that pesky draw with “Shogun” as a blemish, and he avenged that one with a submission win a year later. In this current run, he’s won four straight and has four post-fight bonuses in his past six fights.

But even though his three straight wins over Rua, Jamahal Hill and Nikita Krylov have been against big names, Craig (16-4-1 MMA, 8-4-1 UFC) thinks a Saturday win at UFC Fight Night 204 against former title challenger Volkan Oezdemir (17-6 MMA, 5-5 UFC) will put him at the next level.

“I just believe it’s my time,” Craig told MMA Junkie at Wednesday’s pre-fight media day for UFC Fight Night 204, which takes place at The O2 in London. “I just believe that in life, there are moments that change your life, and this is going to be one of them for me. I’m (ranked No.) 8. He’s (No.) 9. I need this. I need to be making my way further up that ranking to get closer to that goal. That, ultimately, is what I want to do in this sport.”

Starting with his title loss to Daniel Cormier in January 2018, Oezdemir has dropped five of his past seven. But along with then-champ Cormier, he’s lost to recent title challengers Anthony Smith and Dominick Reyes and current champ Jiri Prochazka.

For that reason, Craig isn’t ready to say Oezdemir is on his way out.

“Because somebody’s got a few losses in our sport, you can’t say they’re on the decline,” Craig said. “It just has rises a lot quicker. If you compared his rise to my rise – knocks out a few folks and gets that title shot that didn’t go his way. But he’s always had dangerous opponents, so you can’t rule him out and just be like, ‘Ahh, he’s on the slip and Paul’s on the rise.’”

He also doesn’t think he’s a fighter destined to be in that infamous gatekeeper mode, which is what Craig thinks he was in not too long ago.

After he started to rely on his ground game, which is his bread and butter, things went on the uptick – even though two of his past three wins have been by knockout.

“For a long time, that’s the guy I was – (the gatekeeper),” he said. “But now I’m getting the recognition. People are like, ‘Paul’s good at jiu-jitsu, and his standup’s not too bad.’ That was one of the things I had to change in my head – trying to be a standup fighter when it’s not in your nature is very difficult. You can train it and you can get good at it, but what you need to do is lean into what got you to the dance.”

Check out Craig’s full pre-fight interview in the video above.