Issue 180

July 2019

The unbeaten Cleveland featherweight on winning fights and having a winning personality to match.

You scored one of the most impressive highlight reel knockouts of last year over Jonny Bonilla-Bowman in your pro debut. You got a lot of love after landing that flying knee. What do you remember most about that fight?

The most memorable thing from that fight was when I lunged in with a jab and he hit me with a six and a three and the first thing I thought was ‘Damn, this white boy hits hard.’ That was the very first thing I thought. That was the one thing that stands out in my mind from the fight and that night.

Once you hit a wi-fi hot spot you said you got a lot of love that night, you even had some ladies sliding in your DMs. Is that accurate?

Absolutely! (Laughs)

Your most recent scrap was a late replacement type of deal with Kaeo Meyer. What were your thoughts on him as an opponent and the fight itself?

I knew that he was Hawaiian and I knew he would be a tough bastard. I watched one of his amateur fights. I was expecting a really tough fight. I couldn’t find much of his stuff online going into the fight. He has slick BJJ. He fights well in all positions, especially off the cage. I thought he would be a little bigger but I thought I would be faster.

It was an opportunity to knock off a guy Bellator was showing some love to. I was prepared for a long fight but at the same time I am always looking for the finish and I got that finish in this fight.

You are undefeated as a pro in your very young career. There is such a bright future for so many young guys within the company. What does it mean to you to be a part of such a special youth movement in Bellator?

I am really excited to be a part of it. Not too many guys can say they fought their entire career in one of the best, if not the best, organization in the world. I am one of those guys that can say that. I look forward to being crowned king. I look forward to taking over Bellator. That starts one fight at a time. It’s a process and I am loving the process.

What struck me from the night in State College was your post-fight press conference and your great personality and mic skills almost as much as your performance in the cage.

What are the origins of your personality and the high level of showmanship you bring?

I think it all came together and developed just because it’s who I am. In order to really put it out there and understand it I go back to my start in wrestling. In 8th grade I wrestled a few matches but I quit the team. In 9th grade I really started wrestling. From wrestling I would always talk I just where we weren’t the best but we were known for having shit-talkers. I would always talk shit to every single person. I would even talk shit to a guy after he just whopped my ass. That’s how I would get better guys to train with me. They would want to beat the shit out of me because they wanted to shut my loudmouth up. College guys would beat on me. The older guys would beat on me. I am the type of person where if you are beating on me I will come until I beat you. That all came from wrestling. All of those beatings made me better.

Once I got better I got thrown into different situations. One team wanted me to go to Ocean City, Maryland with them. This other team wanted me to go wrestling at Disney Duals with them. Now I am traveling and as I am traveling I am surrounded by all these different type of kids I have never met before, there are these rich suburban kids, these hillbilly kids and then you got me from the hood! There were so many different mixtures of people that I have learned how to feel comfortable and be myself around everybody, no matter who I am around. I can relate to different people because of wrestling and the situations I have been in through wrestling. It just comes out.

Doing what I want and saying what I want and being me is just me. I am not worried about offending anyone, I am just being myself. If I do off end anyone I will be the first to apologize. I won’t mean it but I will say it. (Laughs) I have learned to be comfortable in my own skin around people from different backgrounds and that allows me to have a pretty decent personality when I am doing interviews.

You are such a funny dude, you have to have a story you can share with us.

The first time I went on the trip to Ocean City, Maryland was the first time I ever hung out with country boys, for the lack of a better term. On the way there we were in the van and the coach at the time said ‘Hey, just so you guys know there will be no dipping on this trip. I am tired of seeing that shit.’ I kinda raised my hand and he was like ‘What?’ I said ‘So, I brought my swimming trunks for nothing?’

I didn’t know what the fuck chewing tobacco was! Everybody starting busting out laughing. Now I know what chew is for sure but at that moment it didn’t. That story always pops up in my mind. They were all laughing at me like this kid doesn’t know what fucking chew is. That was the first time I tried chew.