Uncasville, CT — For the first time in a couple of fights, Mandel Nallo’s night on Friday went off without a hitch. At Bellator 255, he absolutely out-fought, out-worked, and out-classed Ricardo Seixas, earning a knockout in the first round in a fight Nallo was way ahead in.
“That’s what people like, so it felt good,” Nallo said in regards to the knockout, speaking to media outlets backstage at the Mohegan Sun Arena following the bout. “Honestly it just feels good to complete the camp, make the trip, pass all your COVID tests, and get to fight. This is the icing on the cake.”
The way he sees it, “just because my opponent lost tonight, it doesn’t mean he didn’t accomplish something big before the fight happened,” said Nallo. The outcome, in his eyes, it just part of the journey.
On his own game plan, Nallo noted that, “when you find out who you are as a fighter, and you can plug that in to every match-up, that’s kind of what we went over. And I felt like it was pretty well executed tonight. I knew what I had to do, and it was almost a hundred percent what we practiced.”
Except, perhaps, the finish, which came off what appeared to be a superman punch. “That’s probably just bad technique on a cross,” the Canadian admitted. “I had one of those GSP right hands where your back leg gets off the ground and it looked like a superman punch. Because I’m not a big superman punch fan. I’m glad it looked cool though. Or maybe it didn’t.”
It did. And asked about Georges St. Pierre, consider by many the greatest fighter of all time, and a training partner of Nallo, “Rat Garbage” stated that “He is the coolest fighter in the world, and also has the best career of all time. Nobody has done anything close to what he did.”
That would be no unavenged losses, a belt in two weight classes in the UFC, and the welterweight record for title defenses. Not to mention retiring on top.
“Just seeing him still now, active in the gym and obsessed with training, it’s pretty inspiring,” continued Nallo. “This isn’t just something you get in and you spend seven years doing and you bail. This is a lifelong thing, and Georges really shows that.”
Watch the full Bellator 255 post-fight press scrum with Mandel Nallo above.
