Laser-focused might be an understatement when it comes to Henry Corrales ahead of Bellator 228.
Los Angeles, CA — Henry Corrales isn’t exactly known for talking, he does that in the cage. Ahead of Bellator 228, he may have had even less to say than usual.
Corrales is fighting Darrion Caldwell, a man he’s trained side-by-side with in the past. A friend. He’s doing it is his native California, which is a plus, at least. “Any time I get to fight at The Forum, it’s pretty glorious,” he told Cageside Press at the Bellator 228 media day.
The featherweight grand prix, of which Corrales vs. Caldwell is a part, boasts a unique format. During the Bellator 228 broadcast, fighters will take part in a lottery to choose their next date/opponent. That brings a bit of strategy into play. Corrales, however, has a single-minded focus, and knows exactly what he wants next.
“For me, in this sport, I want to fight the champ,” he said. “So whoever that is, if I get an option, that’s my option.”
Winning the belt is key. “Everything else falls in place. All the other sh*t. If you’re not the champ, if you win the belt and you can’t win it throughout the whole tournament, what does that even mean?”
With three other tournament fights on the Bellator 228 card, does Corrales have his eye on anyone in particular? “I have my eye on the Darrion Caldwell match-up versus Henry Corrales,” he quipped. Fair enough. Corrales is not looking past his friend. He hasn’t even gotten around to watching Bellator 226, the other half of the grand prix opening round. Though he admits that yes, he does scout opponents.
“The longer I get in my career, I watch tape for sure,” he said.
Much has been made of Caldwell’s back-to-back losses to Kyoji Horiguchi ahead of Bellator 228, but Corrales isn’t taking the bait. Pointing out that most of the fighters in the tournament have suffered losses at some point, Corrales said simply that “sh*t happens in this sport, so I’m not really thinking about that too much. And that doesn’t diminish what he brings to the table. This guy’s a f*cking stud.”
Bellator 228 takes place Saturday, September 28 at The Forum in Inglewood, CA.
