Former TUF winner, UFC contender, and Bellator grand prix finalist Corey Anderson gets another shot at the Bellator light heavyweight championship in Belfast, Ireland this weekend.
In the Bellator Belfast main event, Anderson meets Karl Moore, who will be fighting in his own back yard with “Overtime” in enemy territory.
There might be some surprise that, with Vadim Nemkov having vacated the promotion’s 205lb title to pursue a heavyweight run, it’s not a bigger name against Anderson. Phil Davis, however, is over in the PFL season, while 185lb champ Johnny Eblen was instead seen winning a decision over Impa Kasanganay, the PFL light heavyweight champ, at the PFL vs. Bellator Champions card last month.
“That was something I was looking at before the buyout happened, Johnny Eblen coming up and me and him fighting for the vacant belt after Nemkov made his decision to leave,” Anderson told Cageside Press in a recent exclusive interview. “It just didn’t end up panning out.”
As for Eblen’s performance in the bout, which came at middleweight, “it was a good fight, but then you also think, Impa’s the 205 champ, but if you think about it, Impa’s really a 170, 185’er. If you look at his UFC career. I’ve met him before, great kid, he does great things, he’s not like a true 205 feel.”
That doesn’t discount Eblen from competing at a higher weight class, but Anderson appears to see some obstacles. “I’m not saying Johnny can’t compete at 205, but when you get up there and you’re trying to get bigger, and carry that weight, and train that weight, it’s going to slow you down. Then you get in there and fight with somebody that actually carries the weight, like me that’s coming from like 240, 235 and that first time they sprawl they get all that weight on top of you.”
“Granted as much as a gas tank as Johnny has, that still wears you down. It’s going to make a big difference. The reach difference, the length difference. Everything is a little different when you go from 185 to 205.”
As for the PFL season, Anderson has stated repeatedly that he was open to it, but wanted whatever opportunity got him to a title shot first. That turned out to be sticking with Bellator, where he has twice competed for the 205lb title.
“My main goal is to get the strap. It’s always been my main goal since I started fighting. Get the belt wrapped around my waist, say I did it, and then stack as much money as I can up in the air.” That’s the opportunity that arrives at Bellator Belfast, which is why Anderson isn’t in the PFL season. “The opportunity to get the belt came first, my manager knew what my plan was, and that’s what we went with.”
In Karl Moore, Corey Anderson sees an opponent who is great at nothing but good at pretty much everything.
“He’s not a great fighter, but he’s not a bad fighter. He’s not great at one thing, but he’s pretty decent at everything.”
As Anderson puts it, you can’t pinpoint one area Moore is good at, be it head kicks or wrestling, but “it’s the fact that he’s good at a little bit of everything. He’s good at striking, he’s decent at wrestling, he’s pretty decent at jiu-jitsu. He’s got more submission wins than me.”
“He’s a well-rounded guy. He’s like Eddie Alvarez. Eddie Alvarez used to say all the time, ‘I’m not great at one thing, but I’m good at being a mixed martial artist.’ And that’s Karl Moore,” Anderson added.
“The difference is, as I’ve always said, there’s levels to this. I just feel I’m just a higher level than the guys he’s fought before. My pace, the pace he usually puts, I put a higher pace and I do it for five rounds. My output is higher than most people at 205 for five rounds. I’ve been fighting five rounds for the last four or five fights except for the last one with Phil Davis. So I have the experience of five round fights, I have the cardio to go five-round fights non-stop, and I just feel like not so much the experience but the class of people we’ve fought have put me on a different level than him.”
Watch our full interview with Bellator Belfast headliner Corey Anderson above.
