Will Brooks is the current Bellator interim lightweight champion, but he expects more from himself.
A 14-1 professional mixed martial artist, Brooks holds himself to a high standard, always driving forward and keeping his headlights pointed at the road ahead. That road currently leads him to former Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler, a fighter who Brooks defeated via split decision in his most recent victory at Bellator 120.
While the interim strap feels nice around his waist, Brooks is ready for me. He’s ready to beat Chandler again Nov. 15 at Bellator 131, and he’s ready capture the undisputed, official Bellator lightweight title.
“It’s never hard for me to get motivated about anything,” Brooks told Bleacher Report. “I set goals in my life, I have things I want to accomplish in my life and I’m still working toward accomplishing those. … That’s all that I’m focused on, doing what I set my mind to, and that’s going out here, beating Michael Chandler, and walking out of there with that title. That’s all I can control.”
Each fighter found success during their first scrap in May at Bellator 120. Chandler took Brooks down and worked a strong top game in the first half of the fight, while Brooks turned the tables later and teed off with powerful strikes and takedowns of his own, eventually earning the judges’ nod.
Now, heading into the rematch, Brooks says they know a little more about each other, and he expects Chandler to make adjustments, just as he’s made adjustments in camp himself.
“I know he outwrestled me the first two rounds (of the first fight), caught me off guard, put me on my back and I had a very hard time getting off my back,” Brooks said. “I feel like, from the first fight, I have to be mindful and respectful of his ability to put me on my back and hold me down.”
That said, Brooks felt confident as the fight wore on, and he felt Chandler fading under his pressure and persistent offensive attack. This, he feels, will play a large role in the rematch for Chandler from a mental standpoint.
“I felt him breaking a little, mentally and physically,” Brooks said. “I’m going to continue to push that, and I think that’s something in the back of his mind. I know it’s in the back of his mind, and he can say whatever he needs to say to make the fans believe what they want to believe.
“I know what I felt. I know what I saw. I know how he carried himself between rounds, and he did not look like a confident man, even after the fight, he did not look like a confident person.”
Chandler’s apparent lack of confidence would eventually prove well founded, as he lost the decision on two out of three judges’ scorecards.
Now, though, the stakes are raised, and each man has the opportunity to redeem himself. While “redemption” isn’t necessarily a storyline associated with a prior victor, Brooks needs to prove that the first fight wasn’t a fluke, that his performance was for real and that he deserves to be promoted as Bellator‘s top dog at 155 pounds.
This notion, he says, will become obvious to fans when they tune in Saturday night.
“I’m a huge believer in evolving as a person and evolving as a fighter, and that’s all I look to do,” Brooks said. “I want to see how far I can push myself as a person and a fighter. Every single day that I wake up, I want to see what I can do as a person and as a fighter. That’s all I’m going to go out there and do, and I think having that mindset, people are going to see a person that’s evolving right in front of their eyes.”
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