In the final days leading up to their bantamweight title unification bout Friday at Bellator 128, Joe Warren has done his best Chael Sonnen impersonation in an attempt to get under the skin of Eduardo Dantas.
Unfortunately for Warren, the Bellator MMA bantamweight champ seems just as comfortable engaging in a war of words as he does a slugfest in the cage.
In different interviews that were conducted Wednesday, Warren and Dantas threw verbal jabs at each other in what was either a genuine exchange of disdain or a late attempt to hype their fight, which will take place at the WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma.
Warren told Steven Marrocco of MMA Junkie that he believes the Brazilian has ducked him, and on Saturday, he’ll ultimately succumb to Warren’s “pressure.”
Eduardo Dantas is a champion who’s scared and runs away from competitors. I’ve been trying to fight this guy for a long time now. He’s a young kid. What do you expect? Champions stand in there and defend their belts. Champions don’t run. I just don’t know if he’ll be able to deal with the pressure I’m going to bring.
In an interview with Elias Cepeda of Cagewriter (via Yahoo), and apparently not in response to Warren’s comments, Dantas squashed the notion that he ever ran from the former NCAA Division I All-American wrestler.
“It doesn‘t make a big difference to me,” said the 25-year-old Dantas, who pulled out of his first scheduled bout with Warren at Bellator 118 due to a head injury. “Everyone knows I’m the champ. To me, Bellator gave him a belt because he’s famous, so they could take pictures with him holding it.”
In true Sonnen-like spirit, the 37-year-old Warren elaborated on how his rivalry with Dantas has become a family matter:
My wife wants me to put this guy down bad. So this is going to be a family affair with me beating the s–t out of this guy. My wife doesn’t like the kid. She hates him, and my wife doesn’t hate anybody and respects everybody. Dantas really pissed her off by skipping out on our fight, talking about me being on steroids when I’m the cleanest man in the sport. He’s just scared! He’s a scared little kid. I’m getting in his head a little bit and it’s hurting him, and that’s the difference with age, being able to handle something with respect or not. The words I say to him come strictly out of annoyance. I’ve never had my wife tell me she wants somebody dead, and I told her ‘no problem.’
Dantas ended his interview with a bold message to Warren and any other bantamweight who plans to take his belt, saying: “It doesn‘t matter where guys fight. If I fight anybody, I kill them.”
In May, Warren scored a unanimous-decision win over Rafael Silva at Bellator 118 to claim the bantamweight interim belt. He won his first world title by knocking out Joe Soto in the second round at Bellator 27 in February 2010 for the featherweight title.
Pat Curran took the featherweight strap from Warren with a third-round KO at Bellator 60 in March 2012.
Warren holds an overall record of 11-3, and his nine wins in Bellator MMA give him the most in the company’s history for any bantamweight.
Dantas (16-3) has prevailed in each of his six fights in Bellator MMA, including three wins in bantamweight title fights.
He won the belt when he submitted Zach Makovsky (arm-triangle choke) in the second round at Bellator 65 in April 2012. Four months later, Dantas got knocked out in the first round by Tyson Nam in his next bout at Shooto Brazil 33: Fight for BOPE II.
Dantas bounced back and finished his next two opponents in the second round in Bellator MMA bantamweight title fights. He first knocked out Marcus Galvao at Bellator 89 in February 2013 and then submitted Anthony Leone (rear-naked choke) at Bellator 111 in March.
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