When fighters are looking at future matchmaking, sometimes they see a dangerous name and look to stay away from it. How many times have we heard a certain promoter say ‘nobody wants to fight this kid’? However, that attitude alludes Orlando Prins.
The Dutch fighter steps into the Cage Warriors cage this Saturday against perhaps his most dangerous opponent in his career, Bailey Gilbert. That fact has Prins as excited as ever for the fight.
“I know he’s a dangerous fighter. He has 8 finishes and he’s got a good ranking. So I couldn’t be more excited for this fight,” he explaiuned. “He strikes me as not the type of guy who tries to win on points and hold on – that kind of plays into my style as well.”
It isn’t that he sees an opening for a finish when his opponent gets sloppy; it’s that he genuinely prefers a fight where both men are going for it.
“I like to fight against people who are actually going in there to finish me as well. I feel like a bunch of the guys that I’ve been fighting are just trying to hold on and just do enough to win the round,” Prins said. “I had to learn from that as well because this is the game – this is MMA. You have to play the game… but I’m definitely more excited for this kind of fight.”
In addition to liking the style matchup, Prins is looking forward to fighting a little more like himself. Recently, a lot of his fights have gone the distance, which is something he likes to avoid.
“Hopefully it’ll be an exciting fight and hopefully I’ll get a finish again. My last 3 fights have gone the distance and that’s not really my style,” he said. “I’m not getting paid extra for that, so I’d like to get in there and get it done.”
You can catch his fight with Bailey Gilbert on the Fight Pass prelims of Cage Warriors 164. Those fights start at 12:30pm EST.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 21:25.
