On Tuesday’s Bellator NYC conference call, you’d be forgiven if you’d forgotten Lorenz Larkin was on the line. Not that it was his doing — simply, all anyone wanted to talk about was the signing of Mike Goldberg and Mauro Ranallo, plus the headlining grudge match between Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva. What was the Bellator MMA free agent signing to do?
In fact, by the time anyone got around to asking Larkin a question, Bellator personnel had to track him down and get him back on the call. Maybe he dozed off, and you couldn’t really blame him. After all, if people would rather talk about a couple of forty year olds who have one fight in three years between them, rather than a welterweight title fight, well you can’t pin that on Larkin. He wasn’t even expecting to be fighting for gold this quickly into his run with the promotion, after all.
You might think the lack of attention would make Larkin a little bitter. After all, he left the UFC on a two fight win streak over ranked opponents Neil Magny and Jorge Masvidal, and was one of Bellator’s biggest free agent signings earlier this year. Yet to hear Larkin tell it, not only does he not mind, it actually works to his advantage. Larkin explained his thinking on the press call Tuesday, where Cageside Press was in attendance.
First off, he discussed how he’s feeling after the excitement of joining his new home. For Larkin, it’s been quite the positive experience so far. “I feel great, man, there’s nothing I’m really looking back at this camp that didn’t go well. For me, everything’s just kind of like a complete one-eighty, how things were going, how things were to where it’s at now” he explained. “I feel great man, there’s nothing I’m looking back on like ‘ugh.’ Everything is great, I can’t ask for a better camp, I can’t ask for a better opponent, I can’t ask for a better venue, I can’t ask for a better promotion. Right now I’m on cloud nine.”
How does that differ from his old home, the UFC? “What it really boiled down to is, my big thing is the respect factor, and somebody knowing my values. That wasn’t happening in the last promotion I was with.”
Yet what about the fact that no one seems to be talking about Lorenz Larkin’s welterweight title fight with Douglas Lima, with all eyes on Silva and Sonnen?
“Not at all man, not at all. I almost like it better, because at the end of the day, everybody’s going to see what happens. They’re going to see just the pure craziness of this fight. It doesn’t have to be all out there like that. Everybody will see come night of the fight which fight on the card stood out. I’m just patiently waiting.”
Bellator NYC and Bellator 180 (airing on Spike TV prior to the PPV) takes place June 24 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Check our Bellator MMA section for more coverage as the event approaches!
