In his last time out, Gegard Mousasi lost the Bellator middleweight title and had his eight-fight winning streak snapped. Now, he’s back and ready to get redemption against an old foe.
Prior to his loss to Rafael Lovato Jr at Bellator 223, Mousasi was contemplating how many more fights he would have left in him. One of which he wanted to be a rematch with Lyoto Machida. Well, he gets his wish at Bellator 228.
Now with that negative energy removed, Mousasi believes there’s still plenty he can offer to the sport.
“Well, I was counting the fights,” Mousasi told The Body Lock. “I wanted to get out of fighting. So it was like, ‘okay, after Lovato, two more fights and this and that.’ I was saying I don’t like it, just fight for the money. Negative thinking and you saw it in the fight. I didn’t give my all. And so that’s why I’m not thinking about it. I’m just gonna fight.
“My goal is now Machida and then Lovato. Get the belt back and then like I said there’s always options. We both know you can go fight RIZIN, I can do welterweight, maybe light heavyweight. You know, that’s the great thing about Bellator. You get options.”
In Mousasi and Machida’s first encounter, they squared off in a five-round main event. This time, we’ll only see three rounds at the max between the pairing.
As sometimes that could play a factor in one’s preparation, Mousasi doesn’t expect it to make a difference.
“Doesn’t matter if I come in and fight hard for three rounds,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s five rounds or three rounds, you can get tired in one round if you go a hundred percent so it doesn’t matter.”
The big story of the Bellator 228 card that surrounds the co-main event rematch is the big featherweight Grand Prix tournament.
As someone who has competed in similar formats before, this is yet another interesting option to “The Dreamcatcher.”
“100 percent,” Mousasi responded when asked if he would be interested in fighting in a Grand Prix. “I heard maybe they’re going to start a middleweight tournament, down the line. So it’s very nice. People get to know all the middleweights. I like the heavyweight tournament, the featherweight tournament is now. So it’s exciting, good fights. You have big names so why not?”