Tyrone Spong is perhaps one of the most intimidating fighters on the planet right now. Look not further than his recent performance, dropping down a weight class to win the Glory Light Heavyweight Grand Prix, finishing two of his opponents in 47 seconds combined.
Most men would cringe when they saw "The King of The Ring's" dominance, but not Angel DeAnda. In fact, he saw a huge silver lining in the performance as Spong was dropped in the opening seconds of his quarterfinal fight versus Michael Duut.
According to DeAnda, if something like that had happened in an MMA bout, Spong would not have been given a standing eight count, he'd have been swarmed and put away.
The California-based brawler is coming off the biggest win of his career, a late third round knockout of former Strikeforce title challenger Anthony Ruiz last November. He was supposed to fight Spong at the last World Series of Fighting (WSOF) show before he cancelled to do the tournament and he's getting impatient.
DeAnda will headline the upcoming WSOF 4 event in Ontario, California this weekend (Aug. 10, 2013) and he spoke to MMAmania.com during a guest appearance on The Verbal Submission about his long road to the headlining appearance, his strong belief in himself and why he can shock the world on Saturday night.
Check it out:
Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): There weren't many fighters champing at the bit to take on Tyrone Spong right now. What do you think it says about you?
Angel DeAnda: (laughs) That's funny. I wonder what people are going to be saying when I beat Tyrone Spong.
Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): You've done well on the California circuit, but you haven't exactly broken through yet. Do you view this as an opportunity to make a big splash?
Angel DeAnda: Yeah, I do. This is a huge opportunity right here for me to shoot out even farther. That's absolutely how I view it.
Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): I want to go over a few things you've talked about recently. Back in May, you mentioned that the next time anyone would see you fighting, you'd be competing at 185 pounds. What was going through your head back then and what made you change your mind?
Angel DeAnda: Well in May when I wanted to go to '85, I was supposed to fight in the beginning of the year on World Series of Fighting's second card but I never got a chance to get on the card. When June was coming around, I was hearing I wouldn't be able to get a fight at 205 so I decided maybe the better opportunities would be at 185 because they were going to have a 185 tournament. I was just throwing that out there in case they wanted to put me on.
There was just a lot of stuff out there they didn't really put out into the media. I was supposed to fight Spong back in March and it didn't happen and that was the only fight they offered me and Spong was so busy with kickboxing that I didn't want to wait around. This is how I survive, this is what I do for a living. i couldn't sit around and wait for this guy forever and not get any fights. I thought about 185 then, but they offered me a deal I couldn't refuse so now me and Spong are gonna fight.
Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): You mentioned living off of just your MMA fighting while Spong is busy with other things like kickboxing. Do you think that's an advantage for you considering you're a 100 percent MMA fighter while Spong looks at it more like a side project?
Angel DeAnda: Well if Spong is treating MMA like that, I think it's a huge advantage for me. I'm not thinking that' he's thinking of it like that. I think he's taking me serious. I'm preparing for the best he's ever been. He's a seasoned fighter. He's seasoned in kickboxing. This is only his second MMA fight but I'm not letting any of that get into my head convincing myself that this will be easy just because he's only had one fight. This will for sure be one of the hardest fights I've ever had and it'll be on the biggest stage I've ever fought on. I'm just trying to treat this fight like any other fight and make sure that mentally I'm there because I know I'm there physically right now to beat Spong.
Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): What got you into MMA?
Angel DeAnda: I always wanted to fight and when an opportunity came my way to actually do it for a living, I jumped on it. I always fought, got into street fights and stuff like that. I always loved the competition of fighting. I never got beat up on the street so when I got into MMA, I really wanted to take this seriously. That was five years ago and here I am today.
You can follow Angel on Twitter @AngelTheDream.