Decked out in a Patrick Star face mask, you sort of got the idea that Alex Polizzi was a bit of a character when he appeared backstage following Bellator 245. The fact that he’d fought to a three-round unanimous decision against former champ Rafael Carvalho, while adorned in temporary tattoos, might have been another sign.
They’d all washed off by the end of the fight, but Polizzi was happy to explain them. “When I first started, I was no tattoos, and a lot of fighters nowadays get all inked up,” he said. “And I thought, ‘I want a piece of that!’ Times are tough, the quarter machines at the local grocery store never disappoint, throw a couple quarters in there, get inked up on a dime!”
Polizzi (7-0), an LFA light heavyweight champion, has a fun sense of humor outside of the cage, but he’s all business inside it. Beating a former champ in his promotional debut proves that. “Happy to be here, happy to put on a good show, but I know I can do better next time,” Polizzi said following the fight.
“Excellent opponent, and I know we’re getting to higher elite levels,” Polizzi later added. While he said he wasn’t exactly disappointed, he knows he can do even better. “Come Monday, we’re back at it in the gym, we’re looking back at this Carvalho fight saying ‘hey, we goofed up here, hey, we should have done better here,’ and we’re just looking at building on where we’re already at.”
Let’s get back to that sense of humor though. When it was pointed out by one reporter that he shared a last name with Jersey Shore star Snooki, Polizzi quipped “I wish you guys had not dug that up. What kind of investigative reporting are they doing in Bellator? No one’s brought that up so far!”
“Unrelated as far as I know,” he continued. “If somebody finds a family tree, please just keep that a secret. Please?!?”
A couple more performances like Friday, and Alex Polizzi might just be ready for his star turn.
