As he heads into his fourth professional MMA fight, Bellator 264 heavyweight Davion Franklin is feeling more at ease than ever.
“This being my fourth fight, I’m getting more and more comfortable,” he told Cageside Press in an exclusive interview ahead of his upcoming fight. “Every time I come out here, it’s a little bit less anxious, and a little less anxiety than the last. So I’m getting more confident being out here, and just in my career too, I’m getting more confident in my career.”
Franklin has been learning on the fly on one of the sport’s biggest stages, with all his professional bouts coming under the Bellator MMA banner. He quickly learned one lesson: “The fans don’t really care if you’re learning on the fly or not. All they care about is results,” Franklin noted. “Once you realize that, it don’t become tough. You’ve just got to put that pressure on yourself and just know that you’re in a ball game quicker than everybody else. You’ve got to show up.”
One advantage for Franklin is training with a top camp at Jackson-Wink MMA. “Most of the guys I’m fighting, they don’t got Jon Jones on their team. They don’t got high quality sparring partners like I do, high quality training partners, high quality coaches like I do. When I think of it like that and I put it into that perspective, I know that they ain’t got this, I got this on lock.”
Despite his confidence, Franklin recognizes that in the fight game, nothing is certain. “This isn’t the WWE, it’s not scripted. We go out there, and God forbid, anything can happen.”
Bellator 264 opponent Everett Cummings is an undefeated 15-0, so you might consider him Franklin’s toughest test to date. Franklin, however, sees the reverse being true. “I’m his toughest test to date.”
“What have you seen him do that was so special that you’d be like ‘okay, Davion’s going to have a whole lot of problems?'” Franklin questioned. “Have you seen anything?”
Ultimately, Franklin feels that he’s in direct control of the outcome in this one.
“I’m going to go out there and have fun. I’m going out there to do my job, I’m going to go out there to handle my business, but most importantly, I’m going out there to have fun,” Franklin stated. And on top of “going out there to do what I want to do,” he added that “it’s like I’m playing a video game. All the power is in my control.”
Watch our full interview with Bellator 264 heavyweight Davion Franklin above! The event takes place this Friday, August 13 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT.
