Former UFC, Strikeforce, and current Bellator MMA star Lorenz Larkin believes his home will be at 170lbs moving forward.
Larkin (25-7, 2NC) returned to the welterweight division a couple of fights ago, after a successful stint at middleweight. Despite that success, however, Larkin told Cageside Press in a recent interview that “It’s going to be welterweight from here on out. I mean don’t get me wrong, if there’s something exciting that pops up, I’m open to it. I am a company man. But the big thing for me is, just keep me busy. I don’t really think about the opponents or nothing like that, it’s just more so, can you guys keep me busy?”
The impetus for going back to welterweight, said Larkin, who has previously admitted that he likes to eat, is staying active. “If I’m not active, then I’m eating up every f*cking thing. I need to be active, I need to have some type of substance where I’m like, I’m training because they’re going to keep me active. But if I’m just one, two fights a year, it’s hard. It’s doable, I’ve done it for x amount of years, but it gets too lax. I’m a better fighter, and I would think the promotion would want me to be a better fighter, would want me to keep active.”
Larkin isn’t one of those older fighters that likes just a couple of fights a year. “Keep me busy. If you can give me three fights a year, give me three fights a year. That’s perfectly fine with me.”
At Bellator x RIZIN, Larkin is set for a rematch with Andrey Koreshkov, who he defeated back in 2019. Given the victory, and his seven-fight win streak, Larkin admitted that he was a bit taken aback with the name being offered.
“Yeah, to tell you the truth, but it’s like hey, whatever. They probably knew from the get go, they told me that name, and then they told me Japan. I was like ‘ooh you guys know how to approach me with bad and good news.” A carrot and stick approach, if you will. “The Japan part was a big f*cking carrot,” admitted Larkin.
Paired up against his old foe, Larkin doesn’t see a fighter who has grown much in recent years. Especially given half his fights have come outside of Bellator. “I think one of the fights, he fought a guy who was like a 55’er who came up to 70,” noted Larkin. “I don’t count that.”
“Imagine if Bellator let me fight outside of Bellator in a regional show. I’d have like 18 wins under my belt. Bellator is a big league, and anything outside of that, unless it’s another big league, to be it doesn’t count. So the two fights in Bellator, I don’t know. He hasn’t changed that much to me,” Larkin added.
Then there’s the mystery of how a fighter he has beaten, who has part-timed it in Bellator, is ranked ahead of him. Though Larkin is past worrying about rankings or title fights.
“I don’t know. Like I keep saying, I’m not focused on the title fight. I just want to keep fighting, and I’ll just let that speak for itself. Since his fight, he’s fought two times outside of Bellator, two times in Bellator. I’ve fought five times in Bellator since beating him, and I’m number nine and he’s number five… I mean, I don’t even know how that comes up,” Larkin exclaimed. “I don’t think about the rankings, I don’t think about none of that sh*t. Give me the fight. Give me the fight so I can sign the contract and then get to camp. And that’s pretty much what I’ve been focused on. Keep giving me these fights, and I’m going to keep going, keep going, keep going.”
Watch our full interview with Bellator x RIZIN welterweight Lorenz Larkin above.
