A high-profile match-up with Dalton Rosta finally arrives for Romero Cotton on Friday night at Bellator 283.
The only question is, just how many times has the pair been scheduled to face off? According to Rosta, it’s four, but that’s news to Cotton, who said during Wednesday’s Bellator 283 media day that they’ve been paired up just twice.
“If it’s the fourth time, I’m just now knowing about it,” said Cotton (6-0). “I know I signed to fight him back in January, I signed the contract to fight him in January. I ended up failing my COVID test, my pre-COVID test so that one didn’t happen. I asked for it again, and we’re here now. I don’t know about the three and the four, but I know it’s definitely the second time.”
Cotton noted that he’s getting paid “almost double the money” to fight Rosta compared to what he was offered in January, so everything worked out in the end. And he doesn’t have any real grievance with Rosta, who hasn’t got under his skin despite some callouts and trash talk.
“He’s a character, man. I like him,” Cotton stated. When told that Rosta had called him a boring wrestler, Cotton replied “That’s great. I plan on being a boring wrestler in the fight. So at least he knows exactly what the f*ck’s happening. So we’re going to get on in there and I guess if anything else happens, he’ll be a little bit surprised.”
That sort of talk comes with the territory it seems. “This is the fight game. It’s kind of fun,” he told Cageside Press. “I come from the world of wrestling, where there’s not very much of that. It’s, you go and you work hard, if you qualify for the tournament, you get there and you’ve gotta win matches to make it to me.”
As Cotton pointed out, getting to the championship normally means winning match-ups. “MMA, it’s dope, because you can just be whoever you want to be, you can get on social media and say whatever you want to say, and if someone picks it up and re-shares it, it’s dope. For him to have this opportunity to come in here and even be in here with me is great for him. And I know that I’ve been on his radar a lot longer than he’s been on mine. So I mean, I’m sure he’s ready for this. This is like his Super Bowl, but for me this is just another day.”
Watch the full Bellator 283 media day appearance from Romero Cotton above. Cotton faces Dalton Rosta on Friday, July 22, 2022 in Tacoma, Washington.
