Heavyweight KO artist Matt Mitrione told the Three Amigos Podcast that part of his decision to leave the UFC for Bellator MMA was the possibility of a dream matchup with the legendary Fedor Emelianenko.
In case you missed the news on Monday, TUF 10 cast member and UFC veteran Matt Mitrione has become the latest fighter to sign with Bellator MMA via free agency. “Meathead” does not have a fight booked as of yet, but when he does step into the Bellator cage, it’ll mark the first time in his MMA career that he’s competed outside of the Octagon. His four-fight contract will net him a guaranteed six-figure payday. The 37-year-old holds a record of 9-5, with only a win against Joey Beltran and a loss to Cheick Kongo going the distance.
Earlier this week, the Three Amigos Podcast caught up with Mitrione, who is never one to mince words. While he didn’t specify any person he wanted to fight in his debut, he did stress the types of fights he wanted to have regardless of who the matchmakers set him up with.
“Honestly it’s not my business,” Mitrione said. “I know they’ll tell me, ‘Hey look this is the fight we’re thinking about for you’, and I say ‘Okay, cool.’ You know I have reservations that — I only want to be in fights that are exciting for the fans. I don’t want to be in a fight where somebody’s going to try to stall something out. I was brought here for my fighting style and my ratings/my draw. I want to fight against somebody that really wants to fight; not necessarily go toe-to-toe. I don’t care if we grapple, I don’t care — whatever it is — but I want there to be an action-filled fight, and whoever they deem appropriate — ‘Look, this guy’s a stand-and-banger, he’s a hell of a grappler, and he’s got hands on him,’ [then] awesome.
When asked if he wanted an immediate title shot vs. Vitaly Minakov or even a rematch with Cheick Kongo, Mitrione praised the champion’s skill set, but wasn’t terribly keen on another fight with Kongo, given how lackluster their first matchup was.
“I believe that Vitaly Minakov has really solid standup, he’s also a very solid wrestler, and he beat Fedor in a Sambo tournament. That dude has got some chops, so I think that [fight] sounds awesome. As far as Cheick Kongo goes, I know how the first fight went, and it was me chasing him down and him running until the 2nd half of the 3rd round. If there’d be something that’d be different about that, then I’d really entertain it, but I’m not trying to put on my track shoes to fight somebody.”
Of course, with joining Bellator MMA comes the potential for a fight with Fedor Emelianenko, who is currently with Rizin Fighting Federation in Japan. Scott Coker has let on that there’s even a chance that Fedor could fight in Bellator this year, although nothing additional has been added beyond confirmation of talks between the two parties.
As Mitrione admitted, the potential for him to fight Fedor played a role in his decision to sign with the organization.
“It absolutely did,” Mitrione said. “And I would be honored and would love to have the opportunity to fight Fedor. If Fedor were to say my name out loud, I would fight him in a heartbeat.”
But would he ever go as far as to actually call out “The Last Emperor” in a post-fight interview? Not so fast.
“I have too much respect for Fedor to call him out,” Mitrione said. “If Fedor knows who I am and can even halfway decently pronounce my name, and he wants to get down, then he can tell his people, and as long as he says my name out loud one time, I’ll happily do my best to punch him in his face.”
There were many more topics discussed during the course of this excellent interview, and you can check those out here (Matt’s interview starts at the 1:17:40 mark of the audio), or via the embedded player below. Remember, if you’re looking for us on SoundCloud or iTunes, we’re under the MMA Nation name. Follow our Twitter accounts: Stephie Haynes, Three Amigos Podcast, Iain Kidd and Mookie Alexander or our Facebook fan page,Three Amigos Podcast.