Forget 50-0: if you’re going to make comparisons to Floyd Mayweather, Bellator 201’s Jordan Young would rather talk about 100 million dollar fights.
Bellator’s undefeated Jordan Young (8-0) is yet another hot prospect for the surging MMA promotion. Along with fellow up-and-comers Joey Davis, Ed Ruth, and Tyrell Fortune, he’ll be looking to continue his climb up the ladder at Bellator 201 this Friday. Only this time, he’ll be doing it at light heavyweight.
The move is definitely a positive, judging from what Young had to say to Cageside Press ahead of the fight.
“I feel excellent. I really feel like this is the right weight class for me,” he told us. “After my last fight, me and my team made the right decision to go ahead and move up.” It’s certainly an easier weight cut. “Right now it’s Wednesday, it’s two nights until fight night, and I feel much better than I would if this was a 185lb cut,” Young said.
While less weight to shed can mean more trips to the snack bar, that’s not the case for Jordan Young. “I keep eating healthy,” he stated, before admitting that “the portions have gone up a little bit.” However, it’s not just about what, or how much, he can eat. “More so than the food, what I’ve noticed is the energy,” said Young. The added energy, he feels, comes from “not having to stress and worry about… ‘oh in three weeks I gotta be this weight.’ When I wake up day-to-day, I feel like I’m able to hop out of bed, less injuries, and more energy to go get after it in the gym.”
Having got after it in the gym, Young was just two days out from his fight against Jamal Pogues when we spoke. He’s got the support of his team, of course, and his family. None of whom are at all nervous when he gets in the cage. At least not too badly. “When you’re 8-0 going on 9-0, that doesn’t happen,” he assured us.
Young’s not overly worried about the record either. “You always want to win each fight,” he explained, but “the way I look at this is, it’s kill or be killed. So I’m not looking at it as 8-1 or 9-0, I’m looking at it as whether I’m going to leave with my teeth in my head and my head on my shoulders.” Yet all that said, he added that he does hold the record sacred, and quoted Floyd Mayweather by saying that “nothing is perfect in life except for my fighting record.”
Getting to 50-0 in MMA, however? “If we’re going to talk about Floyd, then I wouldn’t care about the 50-0,” Young told us. “Lets talk about $100 million dollar fights.”
Jordan Young faces Jamal Pogues on the preliminary card of Bellator 201 this Friday, June 29 at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, CA.
