Issue 190

May 2020

The Bellator lightweight looks back to his earlier, street-fighting days and talks of his burning desire to reclaim the title he once held.

You are coming off a first round submission at Bellator Dublin in the co-main event in February. What are your lasting memories from the fight itself?

I was really going to try to take him down and wear him out in the first round. It went exactly how I planned, really. I was going to get him down and I was going to mount him and wear him out. If I couldn’t submit him in the first, I knew he would be a lot slower in the second and third rounds. I knew if I got on top of him I could submit him pretty fast. All of those guys from the U.K. and Ireland don’t have the best jiu-jitsu. I know no one can hang with me over there. I felt very comfortable and it went exactly how I thought it would go.

You said that the thought hit your brain during the fight that you were favored to finish in the first round, so you made the conscious effort to do so. Is that true?

Yeah it was that morning that one of my training partners said to me that they had looked up the odds and they told me I was favored to get the submission in the first round. When I had his back I thought about that. I figured I should get those people their money. It’s good to get it done in the first round. I didn’t really take any damage. I am ready to jump into another fight. I feel great. I have no injuries. I am trying to get three fights this year, so that was part of the game plan for sure.

That makes sense. You don’t get paid by the hour and coming out unscathed had to make you feel great, right?

For sure. I was healthy after the fight, so I went out and had fun in Ireland. I tried a bunch of Irish whiskey and ate a bunch of food. Dublin was a good time for sure.

Speaking of the post-fight shenanigans, you shared a drink with your opponent after the fight. What did that conversation entail?

I am always down to buy my opponents a drink after the fight. No matter what, we go in there and go to war. Besides Michael Chandler, he’s a little punk, other than that guy, I will buy all of my opponents a drink after the fight. We train our asses off to go out there and beat each other up in front of a lot of people. I think that is awesome. I am always down to get a drink with an opponent. It always good to give your opponent that respect. 

You are one of the top ground fighters in Bellator. You recently said, plainly enough, that you are happy with where you are with your jiu-jitsu game. Can you elaborate on that thought?

I am getting older and I think my fight IQ and jiu-jitsu IQ is better than it has ever been. I feel stronger than I have ever felt. I am working with Fabiano Scherner. He is an awesome professor. He teaches awesome no gi techniques all day long. He has helped me so much. I have been able to put my gi jiu-jitsu into my no gi MMA jiu-jitsu game. I have created my own little thing. I feel like my ground game has evolved and come full circle. I have everything going for me on the ground right now. I feel really, really good on the ground right now. 

You said if not for Brazilian jiu-jitsu that your life could have taken a drastic turn for the worse. Your past is well documented. Can you give us an idea of how much the art changed or even saved you? 

I was selling marijuana like crazy. I was selling pounds of it. I was making good money. I was living on my own. It was an awesome, crazy, fun time but at the same time, I was being an idiot. I was getting into street fights all the time. I had a lot of anger in me. My buddy who was training jiu-jitsu said I might as well start training. He signed me up for a fight. I waited for a week or two out from my fight and I decided to go in to the gym. I knew I was way stronger and more athletic than all of these guys. They were just armbarring me and choking me out. Oh my God. I totally feel in love with it. I saw all of the technique behind it. Once I started doing that I really fell in love with the martial arts aspect of it. I remember watching Rickson Gracie’s Choke DVD. I watched Hooked. That got me hooked! My coaches and my professors made me bow every time, no matter what, win or lose. We had to bow every time we sparred. Bowing and doing all of that really helped me, honestly. I was under a really good Gracie lineage. It just changed me. I wasn’t so angry all the time. I knew that I couldn’t be selling and drinking and getting in fights and doing all of this other crazy stuff and do jiu-jitsu at the same time. I knew that if I wanted to be good at jiu-jitsu I had to do it full time. I wanted to put the gi on and be sober. I fell in love with it. I wanted to be in the gi all day and, and I pretty much was in it all day long. I think that is why I progressed so fast. I have been doing it every day since. I got my black belt in 2011. I have been doing it so long. I learn something, even a little detail every day. It is an awesome martial art for sure. It’s one of those sports that if you put your all into it you will get a lot out of it. It’s brought me to where I am now, for sure.

You are a BJJ black belt, a former street fighter but I also hear you were an arm wrestler. How did that come to be?

I would just drink whiskey and go to these parties and I would arm wrestle anyone who thought they were tough and who wanted to bet money. I was pretty good at arm wrestling. I would win a lot. It also led to a lot of fights. I got into so many dang fights back then that my hands were like these swollen calcium deposited bricks. I did that for about a year and a half. I got good at street fighting, too. It’s crazy to be doing that and to think of how far I came and where I am today. I had so much stupid anger in me. It’s crazy to think of it. It’s a crazy life, for sure. 

If you could have it your way, how would the rest of 2020 play out for you in the Bellator cage?

I want to fight for the belt. I think everyone in the division wants that title shot. Patricio has that and he is in the tournament right now. If I don’t get him, I want to fight the top guys. I would like to fight Benson Henderson. I would like to fight Chandler in a five round fight. I want the top guys. It would be cool if it’s in the United State but if not lets go to Bora Bora or somewhere tropical. 

How much would it mean to get the Bellator belt wrapped around your waist one more time?

I think about it all the time. Especially after that Chandler fight, I knew that wasn’t me. We head butted and then my head was in the clouds. Man, I have thought about it so many times. It killed me for a long time. I try not to think about it now. I want that belt really bad. It would be cool to have another war with Chandler. It would be cool to fight with either of the Pitbull brothers. I want one of those top guys and hell yeah, I want that belt.