Following a hard-fought win against Mike Jasper at Bellator 219, Andrey Koreshkov is still interested in fighting Lorenz Larkin, but listed Erick Silva as another possibility.
Temecula, CA — Andrey Koreshkov was expecting to fight Lorenz Larkin in the main event of Bellator 219 over the weekend. It didn’t happen. Larkin pulled out due to injury, and the former Bellator champ, Koreshkov, found himself lower down the card. Against little known Mike Jasper, stepping in on short notice. The Russian welterweight still picked up the win, mind you.
That said, the fight didn’t go exactly as expected. “Obviously my opponent really studied my previous fights,” Koreshkov told media outlets including Cageside Press via translator following the fight. “So he was ready. He was moving well, he was unorthodox.”
That gave the former champion some trouble. Plus, Jasper “was taking punches, but he was taking them really well. He was always trying to counter-attack, counter-punch me. So unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish the fight the way I wanted to.” That, Koreshkov said, was due to the toughness of Jasper.
Koreshkov admitted that he wasn’t able to find any recent tape on Jasper, which didn’t help matters. Instead, the most recent footage he came across was from 2016. On the positive side, “three rounds of fighting is good experience for me,” he added.
So what comes next for the ex-champ? “Most definitely the Lorenz Larkin fight is one of the fights that I’m really looking forward to. I think this fight would be great. Also there are many other exciting and strong guys, like Erick Silva and others.”
Koreshkov would like a short break, but after that, either of those names would be suitable.
Watch the full Bellator 219 post-fight press scrum with Andrey Koreshkov above!
