Issue 185

December 2019

The undefeated heavyweight on needing a proper challenge

You scored a second-round submission victory over Rudy Schaffroth at Bellator 225 recently. Did the fight play out pretty much as you thought it would going in to it? 

I knew he was going to try to bust his load really fast because he doesn’t have much of a gas tank. I thought he was going to go hard for three minutes. If he did, he might get set up in a trap. I thought it would go to the ground and we would wrestle a bit. He doesn’t have much shape. He’s never been out of the first round before. I didn’t think he was trying to go out of the first round. I envisioned him going hard for a few minutes before he would get tired. From there I would decide what I’m going to do based on what I’m looking at. That’s pretty much how it played out. He’s a heavyweight with no experience like that. The funny thing is that I know Rudy. I know he’s not much of an athlete. I was really surprised that he asked to fight me. He wanted to fight me already? I thought we would fight later on. I said of course I would fight him if he wanted to get beat up already. I just thought he would want to build up the drama a bit. He could have made some actual money out of this fight but he just wanted to do it now I guess.

Where does a win against Rudy put you in the landscape of the Bellator heavyweight division?

The good thing about that card is that we had three of four other high-level heavyweights fighting. Being able to watch those guys perform and seeing how they do will go a long way in deciding that. I will be looking at the winner of one of the heavyweights that fought on the same card I did. I’m not fighting Matt (Mitrione) though. Matt and I are boys. Maybe one of the Russians now like Sergei Kharitonov or Vitaly Minakov.

You said recently you can’t make a name on the undercard. How frustrating is it to feel buried on the prelims?

When you see a guy rising you want to build them. How am I supposed to build on the undercard when I’m fighting guys who look like they just started training yesterday? It’s funny when you go to Bellator’s website and they post a video of me. You see some guys say some nice stuff but most everyone else is just dissing on what my opponent looks like. Man, why are they putting guys in the cage who look like they don’t even belong there? That’s the same shit I said to them (Bellator). If I am saying it and people who are at home working a regular job are saying the same things, how does that help you build a star? It just shows me beating up guys who probably shouldn’t even be there. I want to take on guys with more experience and guys who have been in the game longer than I have. That makes the most sense to me. 

How much does that undefeated record mean to you in your move forward?

I’m definitely not trying to lose! Losing is never OK. I need to remain undefeated. That is part of your brand and part of your name. If you can say undefeated champion that makes you that much bigger and that much more marketable. Saying that doesn’t mean I am going to shy away from a challenge. You have to put that shit on the line. That’s the only way I can stay hungry in the game. It's no good if I am just fighting guys I feel like I can beat up already. I have to feed the competitor in me. That competitor wants a challenge, not to take a fight where I know I can beat up the guy. I don’t feel good about it. I don’t even like sparring guys like that. Why would I fight a guy who I wouldn’t even spar? I never knew the politics of this sport until I was in it. There are guys that will restrict who they will fight. They say they won’t fight anybody. I will fight anybody. If you ask to fight me, we are fighting. If someone says they want to fight just send me the contract. It’s no big deal. As long as it’s not my brother there is nothing to talk about. 

Some have said that you have the highest ceiling of anyone who has transitioned from wrestling to MMA. What do you think when you hear a statement like that? 

I feel that way myself. I don’t think there has been anybody, not to say Daniel Cormier isn’t at the same level, he’s just farther removed from that level of wrestling. He has been detached from it for three years now but I am still very much involved with it. I am still wrestling at the top level. Being able to tap into that just makes me that much more dangerous when it comes to those situations. So, I think that statement is true. That’s where I came from. To have success in wrestling and then to move into the sport of MMA, I was just trying to be the best wrestler in the world. I didn’t even want to be a fighter until this opportunity with Bellator came about.