Keoni Diggs stayed perfect at Bellator 246, against a very dangerous opponent. In fact, not only did Hawaii’s Diggs improve to 9-0 against Derek Campos, he put the veteran to sleep.
“All my dreams coming true,” he said of the experience, speaking to reporters post-fight. “Hard work, and everything’s coming to fruition.”
Diggs wasn’t quite sure whether he’d get the finish or not. Officially, it came in the very last second of the fight. Asked if he felt Campos going out from the rear-naked choke, Diggs replied “A little bit. I seen his arms kinda shaking, but I didn’t know. He’s tough as nails man. Two seconds before that, he literally gave a thumbs up.”
The win makes it two in a row inside the Bellator cage now for Diggs, which coupled with his undefeated record, puts him in a good spot in Bellator’s lightweight division. The only downside to the entire weekend for Diggs, in fact, was coming in just a little heavy on the scales.
That is something he insists will never happen again. It simply came down to a scheduling mix-up. “I never missed weight when I fought amateur for free. I wouldn’t like to start now,” said Diggs. “The reason that happened, I misread the schedule. I didn’t know we needed COVID testing, I just thought the scales just closed at ten. So I legit ran down, from my room, in my plastics, ready to cut that last pound on the treadmill.”
Instead, he wound up needing testing, which prevented cutting that last pound, although Diggs noted he sweated out 0.2 of a pound just running around.
With that in mind, Diggs feels the fine for missing weight was really for nothing. On the plus side, he added, “Derek said he was going to give it back to me, so I’m super stoked by that, because I’m broke. I need that money, every last penny.”
What comes next for Diggs could be interesting. Campos was most recently competing as a featherweight, though he had fought at lightweight before. Diggs himself feels that any talk of Campos coming up is actually taking away from what he accomplished at Bellator 246. But at the end of the day, he added, “that’s for Rich [Chou, matchmaker] and all the other guys in Bellator to decide. I’m not really a guy to call anybody out. I’m just here to fight, that’s my job, and to try to be the best at my job.”
As for when he’d like to be back, Diggs mentioned he had some personal matters to attend to. But he’s hoping to get back in the cage relatively soon. “I definitely would like to fight by December again.”
