Guymon Talks About The Early Days Of Bellator
Posted on 17 Jan 2013
by MMAScoops.com Staff

Mike "Joker" Guymon (14-5-1 MMA, 0-0 BFC) talked about the early days of Bellator and a meeting he had with Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney when he gave him advice on the promotion. He was running Tapout at the time. He will meet Savant Young (10-9 MMA, 0-0 BFC) in a Spike.com preliminary fight for Bellator 85, before the main card on Spike TV. Here are highlights:

On the initial meeting: "I meet Bjorn, and he's like, 'I have this idea. Tournament style and tournament based. What do you think? What do you think I should do?' We had this huge long talk, and to see him take it from a thought, an idea, and turn it into a working platform and then a platform that's getting a lot of steam and recognition with great fighters, it's so cool to see. It puts a smile on my face."

On fighting close to home: "It's always a mixed bag (fighting close to home). It's always great to fight close to home, and it's such a great feeling. But at the same time, you have added pressure to you. For me, this one has even more pressure [than] when I fought at UFC 121 at the Honda Center. That sucked because I fought in my hometown in the biggest of all stages and grounds and lost because – one of the big factors in that fight was the medications I'm on. I was so flat and not performing.

On how he'll be fighting: "This time here, I know how to ween off the medications. Now it's going to be a full 100 percent me. So now, I really need to answer these expectations."