Uncasville, CT —In a battle of two fighters who lost their promotional debuts against the same man, it was Matheus Mattos getting his hand raised Friday at Bellator 262.
Both Mattos and CeeJay Hamilton had fallen to Magomed Magomedov in their inaugural Bellator bouts. On Friday, Mattos bounced back in style with a blistering knockout of Hamilton.
“It feels amazing. I feel like I’m born again,” bantamweight Mattos exclaimed following the fight. “To be back in the way of victory, it feels so good. This day will last forever.”
Mattos was thrilled with the approach opponent Hamilton took to their main card fight Friday. “He’s a wrestler. He could choose to do that boring game, and try to take me down and win on the decision,” Mattos observed. “But he chose to stand and go for the striking. And fortunately he did it, because it was a beautiful knockout. If Bellator gets some more strikers for me, it would be welcome.”
Addressing his debut loss, Mattos later added that “My two losses, were to two of the best in the world [Magomedov and Petr Yan]. I have been fighting at a high level for a long time. So I’m prepared for everybody. Now, they can see that this fight welcomed me to Bellator. Now they know me. Now they know that Matheus Mattos is coming for us.”
Watch the full Bellator 262 post-fight press scrum with Matheus Mattos above.
