Bellator 155: "Carvalho vs. Manhoef" comes to CenturyLink Arena in Boise, Idaho, this Friday night (Fri., May 20, 2016), featuring a main event between newly-minted Middleweight champion Rafael Carvalho -- who will make his first title defense -- against Dutch fighting veteran Melvin Manhoef.
Carvalho became the man to beat in Oct. 2015 with a stunning liver kick in the second round of his fight with Brandon Halsey, who had been forced to vacate the title because of missing a weight cut (he had never lost a fight until then). Meanwhile, less than one month later at Bellator 146, Manhoef staked his claim at a title shot with a stellar performance against Hisaki Kato. It took exactly 3:43 for "No Mercy" to land the punch that put Kato down and put him next in line, recording win No. 30 of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career.
Manhoef has also been busy in the interim, taking a fight just last month for the debut of Bellator Kickboxing in Torino, Italy. Manhoef claims that fight prepared him for his world title shot at Carvalho in today's interview with MMAmania.com.
"The sharpness of the standing up fighter is coming back to you when you're doing a lot of kickboxing. The only thing is defense is different, how you can defend yourself is different, but for the interaction it was very good for me that I had a lot of sparring sessions. That's why I took the fight. I saw the fight as a tryout for my next bout."
Manhoef also believes they made some changes in his training camp that will make him even sharper this weekend.
"The preparation -- everything is going well. I'm training very hard you know, so I'm enjoying it all the time. Everything is fine. We had a new kind of method to train so I hope it will work out. I trained more times a day, but shorter (sessions) so we have some things we have done. It's very okay now at the moment."
I suspect Manhoef was being a little vague to not give Carvalho's team too much information, but when you've got the stopping power Manhoef has in 93 percent of his wins you can only prepare so much. Kato learned that in Thackerville.
"Yeah, that fight was a good fight you know? It let people see that I'm still capable of doing what I do the best and that's knocking people out. To win (in) this fashion for me it was great and also (great) for the fans."
Manhoef sees the match up with Carvalho as one Bellator had been thinking about even before he won the Middleweight title.
"I think that Bellator put me in the No. 1 contender's spot for the title because Carvalho was one of the guys who was the coming up man. I think they thought if he would win (against Halsey) I would get the title shot also."
It's hard to disagree since in a one month span both men ended a fight with a single strike. I asked Manhoef what he thought of the liver kick Carvalho stopped Halsey with.
"Because (Halsey) didn't expect the kick it was like a harder very accurate kick. You know when you get the better body punch or body kick it's going to be hard (to beat). For him it was very tough to lose in that way, but he was a guy who was feared by a lot of guys because his wrestling game is sick and he's very powerful. He didn't expect the fight would end like this but that kick was like -- he put it out with his toe. It was very, very perfect."
The question that's going to be on everyone's mind on Friday night in Boise is who can be more perfect.
"Obviously, I want that to be me you know. In the 30 fights (I've won) I have like 28 knockouts, so from 30 fights that I've won I have 28 times that I was perfect. I hope I can be perfect again on the 20th and I'm training my perfection so I think everything will come (out) good. I have a lot of faith in myself and in my team and in the people who have supported me so I am looking forward to this win."
Manhoef is aware of the criticism that he's one dimensional in his striking and quest for knockouts, so he answered the question before it could even be asked.
"For me it doesn't matter if it's going to be the perfect punch or what. I trained everything, every aspect of the MMA, I trained it. I'm very well rounded. For me it's no problem and every way (it can go) it's going to be perfect."
After a career in kickboxing and MMA that spans 20 years with an assortment of titles lost and won, I asked Manhoef what it means to be in this position to win a title again.
"At this point in my career it's like amazing that I can still achieve and be where I am now at my age and still fight for a title. For me that's already an achievement, you know? I am very happy and thankful that I can be part of this and for me it's going to be one of my last runs so it's going to be a special one. This is really special for me."
The recent UFC Fight Night in Rotterdam has Manhoef thinking of something else special -- headlining a Bellator show in his home town.
"That's what I'm hoping for, I'm aiming for. If I can do that, I'm gonna do that. We have many good fighters who are participating in Bellator now. You have (me) and Marloes Coenen so, it would be great if Bellator could do the same in Holland for us. I'm gonna root for it. I'm gonna do my best to get it."
Complete audio of our interview is below and complete Bellator MMA coverage can be found right here on fight night.