Uncasville, CT — Team Alpha Male lightweight Chris Gonzalez knew he was in for a tough fight against Vladimir Tokov at Bellator 244. “He comes from a really good camp, his head coach is Fedor [Emelianenko], I don’t need to talk about him, everybody knows who he is, he’s a legend on his own.”
Tokov “was tough and well-rounded. He was going to come out and scrap,” added Gonzalez. “I was prepared to do whatever I had to to win.”
Win is what he did. A split decision against Tokov improved Gonzalez’s record to 5-0.
There’s always some nervousness, waiting for the judges to render their verdict after a fight. His coaches believed he had done enough to win the second and third round. “They’re really fair and honest with me, we have that kind of relationship, they wouldn’t lie to me. So they though I won, I knew it was close enough, once they told me that I was pretty confident.”
Gonzalez didn’t exactly have a lot of time to prepare for the Team Fedor fighter.
“It was kind of weird, with everything going on right now, it was kind of short notice.” When Gonzalez says “kind of,” it really equates to short notice, period. Two to three weeks. “I want to say about three weeks notice for this fight.” But, as Gonzalez pointed out, “I’ve been training with one of the best gyms in the world, if not the best.”
Where the win leaves him in Bellator’s lightweight division is another question. He’s early in his career — but has four wins in the promotion. “That’s for Bellator to decide,” said Gonzalez. “I’m just going to keep fighting whoever they put in front of me.”
As far as getting a ranked opponent, “a ranking’s just a number. You’ve got to beat whoever steps into that other side of the cage for you anyways,” Gonzalez observed.
Watch the full Bellator 244 post-fight press conference with Chris Gonzalez above.
