Casey Kenney made a splash during his first stay on Fight Island. The noted grappler changed his tune as he pieced up the ribs of Heili Alateng for 15 minutes, leaving behind huge welts. That may not have even been the biggest impact he made though. After the final bell, Kenney jumped into the audience (or lack thereof) and began to demand to get a quick turnaround. Kenney admits, this was something he had already decided he was going to do, no matter who was listening.
“Yeah, it was pre-planned. I said I was hoping to put him away a little earlier and do that, but I was just yelling at anybody,” Kenney explained. “That’s where Mick Maynard sat. I think Dana and Sean Shelby were not in attendance, but I was kind of hoping those guys would be there as well. So Mick kind of took the wrath of it.”
For Kenney, this had to be pre-planned. The MMA Lab product was not only pumped to have another win under his belt, but he had been pining for too long to get the shortened layoff. As he notes, it’s always the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.
“I was just excited. I’ve been talking about fighting with the quick turnaround, and I got my 10-day notice fight, but there’s still four or five months in between,” he said. “I wanted a quick turnaround so I figured I needed to say it a little bit louder and that was me jumping out of the cage.”
After doing so, and laying so much of that pressure on Mick Maynard, Kenney began to second guess his methods, or at least attempt to excuse them. So upon getting back in the cage, there was another exchange that was a little less noticeable to the camera.
“Once I got back in the cage, I looked at him and was like ‘I say that with all due respect, because I kind of yelled at you,” he said with a laugh. “He had a mask on, but he was laughing. He looked like he didn’t mind too much.”
Kenney will now get that chance at a short turnaround on Fight Island’s UFC 254. After heading home for approximately 10 days, Kenney returns to fight Nathaniel Wood on the ESPN+ preliminary portion of Saturday’s card.
You can listen to the entire audio of this interview here.
