Bellator 247 in Milan, Italy saw the successful return of “The Pikeman,” as SBG Ireland’s Brian Moore knocked out Simone D’Anna in the second round on Thursday. The main card fight came as part of the promotion’s debut on CBS Sports Network stateside — and marked the second straight win under the Bellator MMA banner for Moore (13-7).
The victory did not come easy, as Moore himself was rocked during the fight.
“Mixed emotions right now,” said Moore following the bout, announcing plans to celebrate before admitting that “I have a lot to work on.”
“Forward I felt great, I felt really good,” Moore explained during a post fight media scrum. “He started giving me a little trouble with the leg kick, and I started checking it. I was countering him nice, but when he shifted forward, I didn’t do enough on the back foot. And I usually pride myself on how switched on I stay and how alert I am on the back foot. But I let it slip tonight, and I almost paid the price.’
Almost, but didn’t. Which he attributes to a more intangible factor. “You can’t rule me out, because I have the biggest heart in the game. Never mind the biggest right hand, I have the biggest heart in the game.”
Now, Moore has his eye on the bantamweight division. He was actually trying to land a fight in the weight class at Bellator 247, but wound up at featherweight instead. No one, apparently, is interested in fighting the Irishman at 135lbs.
He did have a fight scheduled last year with Toby Misech. That’s a fight he’d consider, but there are other names he wants as well. “Whatever. I wanted Ricky Bandejas. And then Leandro Higo had a fight here as well. There’s two guys, there were many more that were meant to be here tonight. They’re not,” said Moore.
“Either of those fights I’d like. Toby’s a great fighter too. Is Toby 135? He keeps missing weight, isn’t that right?” Moore questioned. Misech did, in fact, miss weight for his last bantamweight bout. “I want to fight 135, I want to fight top five guys.”
Asked about the strides Bellator has made in Europe of late, including their European Series and a historic first show in Paris, Moore agreed that the promotion had really cemented their brand there.
“Amazingly so,” said Moore. “We are lucky to be with Bellator. Think about what these guys had to do to pull this out. If someone had said to me, mid-lockdown, that I would be fighting in Italy of all places in October, I would have said get the f*ck out of here. But we are, we’re here. The amount of work these guys had to put in to do that is absolutely insane.”
At the same time, he noted, “I think Bellator are lucky to have us. Especially me, because I f*cking fight anybody. I offered to fight [Derek] Anderson for a bigger payday tonight.”
Anderson, of course, was originally scheduled for the main event against Paul Daley. At welterweight. But all that aside, “we’re lucky to have Bellator, we really are,” Moore finished.
Watch the full Bellator 247 post-fight press scrum with Brian Moore above.
