Los Angeles, CA — Improving to 18-5 with a one-sided beatdown of Moses Murrietta at Bellator 238, former UFC welterweight Curtis Millender got back in the win column in a big way.
Millender picked up his first win in just over a year on Saturday in L.A., part of Bellator’s first even of 2020. His performance earned him a pair of 10-8 scores, not a bad showing at all, in what was something of a homecoming fight (Millender had competed for Bellator several times prior to his UFC stint).
“I felt like I preformed very well,” Millender said following the bout, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press. “I went out and showed a lot of things I wanted to show. Wrestled a little bit, got a couple takedowns, dropped him a couple times.”
“Overall,” he added, “without getting the finish, getting two 10-8 rounds is just close.”
Millender looked like he was working to set up a big finish throughout the fight, though it didn’t come in the end. His coaches, he said, “they know how I am. I’m flashy with my talking, flashy with my fighting.” As for his opponent, Murrietta, “he’s a local guy, we know of each other, so he’s seen a lot of me. He defended the high kicks pretty well. He posted about a month ago about defending the flying knee; I didn’t even throw any. I knew he was waiting for that too, I kind of was reading him. I didn’t even fake any of them.”
Snapping a two-fight losing streak, Millender said, took a load off his back. “A big load. The last time I won was in this building. December of 2018. Just hearing that I won was awesome.”
Moving forward, Millender now gets to call his shot, or at least attempt to. And MVP — Michael ‘Venom’ Page — is at the top of the list. “I still want that. It’s up to him. It’s clearly up to him. Everybody knows I want the fight, both Bellator and him.”
At the end of the day, “I want exciting match-ups,” Millender stated. “I was saying during media day, [Jason] Jackson. I wouldn’t even mind Ed Ruth. I have to beat the kind of guys that have been my Achilles heel throughout my career. That’s the only way I’m going to get what I deserve.”
Watch the full Bellator 238 post-fight press conference with Curtis Millender above!
