Bellator 202 rolls into town this Friday, with Gerald Harris getting a second chance to make a first impression in the promotion.
International Fight Week may be over but the MMA machine keeps churning. Bellator MMA takes over Thackerville, OK, Friday night, as the Viacom owned promotion stages a women’s featherweight title fight to headline Bellator 202. Julia Budd (11-2) will defend her title against Talita Nogueira (7-0) in the main event and Michael McDonald finally makes his anticipated return to the cage in Thackerville.
While Bellator 202 may fall a bit short in terms of star power, however, there are number of exciting fighters scheduled to compete this Friday night including well traveled veteran Gerald “Hurricane” Harris.
Cageside Press had a chance to speak with Harris leading up to Bellator 202, and the Oklahoma native has all but guaranteed victory in Thackerville.
“Anyone that has made the cut will tell you, it’s not fun, it’s brutal.”
The “Hurricane” has competed everywhere from 225-pounds all the way down to 170-pounds. Friday night will mark the return of Harris to the welterweight division and he is more than looking forward…to the fight that is. “I hate fighting at 170,” the “Hurricane” half-jokingly said.
“I don’t know if it’s an advantage, fighting at 170 (lbs). The guys here are fast, strong, and big. Anyone that has made the cut will tell you, it’s not fun, it’s brutal.”
Weight cutting continues to be a hot button topic in the sport of MMA. In today’s climate, it’s basically expected that at least one fighter will in fact miss weight on a given fight card. In May, Darren Till missed weight ahead of his first ever main event fight in his hometown of Liverpool by 3.5-pounds. Harris had some thoughts on the matter. “That’s actually a joke,” said the “Hurricane”.
“He cut the weight the wrong way, putting all his cloths on. That’s actually a joke in the wrestling world; the guy that doesn’t know what he’s doing puts on the sauna suit, his hoodie, he falls all over the treadmill. That’s self inflicted pain because he waited to long to cut the weight.”
Always the pragmatist, Harris would offer some advice to Till and any other fighters that are still learning the subtle art of weight cutting.
“I put all the layers of clothes on when I’m done cutting and I’m just laying there. But don’t put all that stuff on when you’re cutting weight, that s*** just don’t make sense.”
Harris is a man of many talents. He is an elite mixed martial artist, he has the weight cutting thing down, and he is a successful stand up comedian. So successful in fact a major network is in talks with the welterweight for his own comedy special. “I’m actually waiting for Comedy Central to get back to me about a 30-minute special,” Harris explained.
“As soon as I started keeping it real and just talking about real life stuff people started falling in love with my comedy. I’ve done three stand up specials, I even sent Joe Rogan a clip and he liked it.”
Gerald Harris may have his post-fight career lined up, but before the Oklahoma native decides to call it a career he will face the undefeated Ukrainian “Dynamo” Yaroslav Amosov at Bellator 202 this Friday night in Thackerville, OK.
The Bellator 202 prelims will air live on the Bellattor app, with the main card airing live on the Paramount Network 9/8c.
