Normally you don’t see higher profile fighters take fights on four days notice against a dangerous fighter. Derek Brunson decided to buck that trend. The Strikeforce middleweight (9-0 MMA, 3-0 SF) replaces Terry Martin and will square off against Kendall Grove (14-10 MMA) at ShoFight 20 on Saturday night.
Brunson had a clause in his contract with Strikeforce in which he was allowed to fight outside of the organization and was able to take the fight on Saturday.
It has been a long road for Brunson just to get back into the cage as he was supposed to fight Jacare Souza at a Strikeforce show in March, but wasn’t cleared by the Ohio Athletic Commission due to failing a pre-fight eye exam. Brunson, at first upset about the situation, is now ready to put it aside and is ready get back into the cage.
“The Jacare fight was supposed to be March 3rd,” Brunson told Bleacher Report. “I took this fight maybe a month before the fight. So I was behind. It was the beginning of the year, so I had to get all this blood work, eye exam, physical, all that stuff done. So I got the physical done, I got the blood work done and the last thing I can get scheduled was the eye exam with the ophthalmologist.
“So I scheduled that and that had to be two weeks before the fight. Went and took the eye exam, they faxed it over to the Ohio State Commission. Ohio kicked it back there and said we aren’t passing his eye exam because his eyes have to be a certain standard without the contact in order to fight just in case they get knocked out.
“So they pulled the fight from the card. I’m completely bummed about it. I set up Lasik two weeks later, went and got the Lasik done and here I am today and this is the first fight that came up. I jumped on it.”
Brunson hasn’t competed in Strikeforce since November due to the eye situation in February, but it’s been hard to find an opponent for him as well and that’s why when Grove’s original Terry Martin was unable to fight, Brunson saw an opening and is ready to go.
“I’m in good shape,” Brunson stated. “I’ve been training. I definitely wanted to get a fight in. I was looking to get two fights in before I fought in August. Nothing was really coming up. It was hard to find opponents, so Kendall’s opponent got injured I was available. So I thought it would be a good opportunity you know and jumped after it.”
Brunson was a little worried though about taking the fight originally, but felt better after taking some time and thinking about it.
“I was a little reluctant being when I first got the call,” Brunson stated. “I was in bed. My manager called me and was like, “Hey can you fight this weekend?”
“I was like uhh yea,” Brunson stated. “And the first thing that popped into my head and it wasn’t who I was fighting. It was uhh how much do I weigh? I was thinking about the weight cut more so. That was the only reluctance if I could make the weight. We got it at a catch-weight of 190 which should work out.”
ShoFight 20 will take place tomorrow night, June 16 at O’Reilly Family Event Center in Springfield, Mo. The card airs live on the Fight Network in Canada and on a tape-delayed pay-per-view on July 1 in the U.S.
You can listen to the entire interview here.
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