Bellator 166: "Dantas vs. Warren 2" goes down at WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla., tomorrow night (Fri., Dec. 2, 2016), featuring a main event between former Bantamweight champion, Joe Warren, against reigning 135-pound kingpin, Eduardo Dantas, in a highly anticipated rematch.
Warren defeated Dantas in their first encounter, unifying the Bantamweight title. It was a close and, at times, controversial fight, particularly when Warren landed an illegal kick in round five; however, it was ruled accidental and it did not cost him the fight. While Dantas will look to avenge that loss and solidify his stature as champion, Warren looks to use Dantas as a stepping stone to the throne for a second time, bypassing a loss to Marcos Galvao at Bellator 135 in the process.
MMAmania.com recently spoke with Warren about the exciting rematch, as well as the potential match ups that could come after Dantas, including the winner of Galvao and L.C. Davis earlier in the night. First, though, Warren takes a look back at his win over Sirwan Kakai at Bellator 161 and how sweet it was to finish his opponent with a guillotine choke.
"It was very satisfying. I believe he's one of the tougher fighters I was ever going to get in the cage with. A lot on the line when both fighters had a loss last time -- his career was on the line and so was mine. I believe he frickin' came out with everything he had and we got a great a finish so we're happy about that."
It was that finish that set the table for Warren to return to Thackerville for this rematch -- the same venue where Warren beat Dantas to take his title.
"Yeah, you know I believe that belt's mine anyway, and I hate to see it on someone else. They've put it on my waist three different times in that cage, we're about to get fourth time here next Friday. Same place, same result. It's gonna be pretty exciting. Now, I just need to perform again."
Regardless of Warren's success the last time they met in Oklahoma, Dantas just delivered a vicious beating at Bellator 156 to put the belt back around his waist. Warren was definitely taking notes.
"Some people that are matched up wrong have a hard time fighting a certain guy. I think me and Marcos have that little spark, and I think me and Dantas do. I'm the worst person for Dantas ever to get into a cage with. What I took from that last fight was that he changed to a point fighter. He's trying to win fights with jabs and kicks. I'm not that person you can beat with point fighting. A jab or a kick's not going to stop me -- you're going to have to come out there with everything you have and try to finish me."
I respect Warren's opinion, but I wouldn't necessarily agree that Dantas wasn't trying to finish. I argued that Galvao was already finished before round five began and Warren says that comes as no shock.
"Dantas has been beating up Galvao for, I don't know, 20 years so there was nothing different. I mean these guys are like little boyfriends, okay? Galvao taught him how to do jiu-jitsu and was his coach when he was little so they've got that personal connection. You know when you're training with a guy every single day you can pick him apart, man you just know who he is. It's a bad match up."
For that very reason of "styles make fights," Warren's confidence is high going into this rematch in Thackerville.
"I believe it's a bad match up for Dantas. He's going to have a rough time. I'd like to push the pace and keep the tempo really high. I'm not afraid to get hurt or get into some of those down and dirty positions, and I don't think he's very comfortable in there. That's where I'm going to try to bring him -- into the deep waters and into the grind."
Despite his confidence and bravado, Warren has not let past success against Dantas in the past go to his head or make him lackadaisical in his fight camp.
"I believe we're different fighters, I believe we're different people, we've changed. It's exciting for me because I lost that belt and now he's got it and I have to get it back from him. So it's gonna be a satisfying win for me. Me and my family are focused on getting this win and being back on top."
Even though Warren is familiar with both the current and the former champion fighting on this card, he's got a little history with L.C. Davis, too, and Warren wasn't shocked or bothered to hear Davis call him "a dirty fighter."
"You know, people like to talk a lot of shit about me, man. Dirty fighter? I don't give a shit. A fight's a fight, man. I'm not doing anything illegal, so if Big John's in that cage and he's gonna stop it, you guys watch the fight. It just sucks to get manhandled by a man, okay? And L.C. Davis, I don't think I got hit one time in that fight. I took him to his back and controlled the fight that I needed to make sure that I won to get a title shot. Our focus was to beat him in wrestling and that's what we did."
Warren doesn't care about earning praise from Davis or anybody else for fighting what they feel is the right way.
"Respect-wise, I give these guys as much respect as they deserve, but once we get in that cage I take all that away -- you're just a body in front of me to punish. Things happen, you know, we're fighters. If I grab your glove, too fucking bad, do something about it. I'm not poking you in the eyes, I'm not kicking you in the nuts, if so I'm getting called for it you know that. L.C. Davis might still be butt hurt by getting pummeled by me."
Warren talks a good game, but so does recent Bellator signee, Chael Sonnen, so to wrap it up I asked him to say who was better at throwing verbal jabs.
"Chael is a good friend of mine, man, and he is the best in the world at (verbal) performance. He's got everything mapped out, he knows what he's going to say, he knows this, this and this. That's not me -- it comes straight from my heart. Nine out of 10 times if I'm telling somebody something it's because it's what it is -- the truth -- and people don't like to hear it, so that's the bottom line. Chael is the best at stirring the pot. I think he will get people upset, but you can see that he's doing that."
Another famous wrestler once said "and that's the bottom line" to end his promos, so even though Warren will give Sonnen the win on promoting fights, I think he'll talk a few more fans into the seats in Thackerville tomorrow night.
Complete audio of the interview embedded in the video player above and complete Bellator MMA coverage can be found right here on fight night.