Bellator 281: Oliver Enkamp Talks Training with Steven Seagal, Injuries Before Previous Fight

London – Coming off the first loss of his Bellator career welterweight Oliver Enkamp looks to get back into the winner’s circle when he takes on Mark Lemminger at Bellator 281 on Friday night.

“If anything it made me way more hungry for this fight. I think I came in too relaxed with three first-round victories in the bag. Now I feel all my sense are more sharpened because I want to get back in that winning streak. Technically I went into that fight with a very bad training camp due to injuries. So I don’t have a lot of technical takeaways, but mental edge now of coming in with a loss, that really fires me up,” Enkamp told reporters at media day.

Enkamp was dealing with injuries ranging from rib issues, to a back strain, to a knee injury. He did not want to withdraw from the bout however and went ahead with the fight.

“I invested a lot to go to United States for my first fight, and I spent the last 4 or 5 weeks over there, training. So I didn’t want to pull out and leave all the fans disappointed. So I basically had like 4 or 5 MMA sessions in the last month before fighting. I spent most of my training camp on a stationary bike,” he said.

“I grew from the experience so I always look at the positive. I don’t really care about the result as long as I feel I get better in some way. In the long run it’s probably good for me even though it sucked when it happened.”

In steps Lemminger who is coming off a loss to Neiman Gracie at Bellator 266. Enkamp described the matchup as an exciting one for him and the fans.

“I think this is a very exciting matchup because I don’t see him as a specialist of any kind like my last opponent. He’s more well-rounded. Good on the feet, and on the ground, as I see myself. So this fight can go anywhere, and I think it’s a very exciting matchup for the fans,” Enkamp said.

Enkamp is known for his striking and with his opponent coming off a TKO loss it’s to be seen if he will welcome engaging the Swede in a striking battle.

“Everyone reacts differently to those kind of situations when you get knocked out. I don’t know how his mental is, but I think I have more tools in the tool box than his last opponent that knocked him out. So he should be very cautious of what I can throw,” said Enkamp.

On an odd note actor Steven Seagal makes yet another appearance in the MMA world. Enkamp got to work with him a little bit in this camp which brought a smile out of the Swedish fighter.

“Yeah, I have some secret tricks up my sleeve now. Most of his techniques are too lethal so I can’t show them in public, but you know, always got to have some of those ‘secret cards’ to pull out the sleeve,” Enkamp laughed.

“If there was no rules it would be different, and maybe Seagal would be in my corner as well. For those people who don’t know what we’re talking about you can see my brother’s YouTube channel where we went to Dubai and trained with Sensei Seagal.”

Watch the full Bellator 281 media day appearance from Oliver Enkamp above. Enkamp faces Mark Lemminger in the welterweight division this Friday, May 13, 2022 as part of Bellator 281 at the SSE Arena, Wembley in London, England.