Brandon Girtz made the drop to featherweight on Thursday at Bellator 250, competing at 145lbs for the first time in his career. Spoiling his coming out party in the weight class was Henry Corrales — who is now looking to drop weight classes himself.
The former King of the Cage champ told media outlets following the win that he’s looking to move to bantamweight, to pursue a rematch with Juan Archuleta. The pair met in January at featherweight, and Corrales was not happy with how events played out, win or lose. Archuleta then moved back to 135lbs and won the title there.
It’s something “OK” Corrales had mentioned in his pre-fight interview, and it remained a big theme after the win over Girtz. “I’ve made 35 before. No big deal,” said Corrales, asked about shedding the extra ten pounds.
His full attention is on the rematch with the recently crowned bantamweight champ, for a number of reasons.
“I like Juan Archuleta on a personal level. he’s a good guy, he’s a good father, a good friend to his buddies,” explained Corrales. “But professionally as a competitor, he’s a f*cking gimmick. Any Mexican from Southern California that calls himself a Spaniard and dresses up in costumes, he ain’t a real one, dude. I’m not cool with that guy.”
The bigger bone of contention for Corrales, perhaps, is that “there wasn’t a winner in our fight. He ran, I chased. Nothing f*cking happened. I dropped him, I got the only takedown. For him to jump on the cage and celebrate like he f*cking won something wasn’t cool. It didn’t sit well with me,” Corrales continued. “The fans were booing, and justifiably so. My mother was in the crowd in L.A., my friends and family. He flipped everybody off. I’m not down with that dude. He’s next.”
As for the Girtz fight, it appeared that leg kicks were a big part of the game plan. They were, in fact, Corrales told Cageside Press. Which almost came as a surprise to him. “I didn’t think that I was going to be able to get to it and stick to it. Just the way his knee’s positioned, he’s really wide on it,” said Corrales. “So if I was to go up top to the inner thigh, he would have checked it really hard with that knee. So I had to go lower to a spot that you don’t really kick too often, but that was the only spot that was available, and that was the front side. But I had to take what I could get.”
Watch the full Bellator 250 post-fight press conference with Henry Corrales above.
