“I fight out of Temecula, California. Dan Henderson’s Athletic Fitness Center. I felt at home here. I’ve been here for years. I knew my crowd was going to show up. I think we blew the roof off the place,” Creighton told reporters including Cageside Press at his post-fight scrum

Creighton (7-3) picked up a split decision over Joey Davis at Bellator 293 after a hard-fought three rounds that tested his endurance. Creighton said that hard rounds with his training partners, including Henderson, were key to his victory over Davis.

“Just a lot of hard rounds. Even with Dan Hendo himself, Tarec Saffiedine. I have great training partners around me. I knew cardio was going to be the biggest aspect. I watched Joey’s fights. I did film study. He comes out during the fight and he fights at a decent pace. Then he slows down throughout,” he said.

“And if you watch my fights I speed up throughout. I think I showed that here tonight.”

At the end of the day Creighton felt that he won because he wanted it more than Davis. Plain and simple.

“Nothing against Joey. But Joey’s supposed to be here, and I want to be here. I thought that was the difference and I think that’s what it kind of came down to in the end. Nothing taken away, nothing from Joey, he’s had his two-and-a-half year layoff. Nothing against him,” Creighton said.

“But I really wanted it. And I wanted it more than him.”

Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Jeff Creighton above.

The post Bellator 293: Jeff Creighton Credits Hendo’s Gym For Win Over Davis appeared first on Cageside Press.

Brennan (8-0) put away Josh San Diego with a rear-naked choke inside of a round in Temecula, California, and reflected on the win afterwards.

“Everything felt great. I didn’t really get off too much on the feet, landed a couple of things here and there. Landed a good cross, solid, used that in my following setup,” Brennan recalled, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press. “Everything felt great. Takedown was great, back was great. I was holding his head in place with my own head so to hit him, so he would stop wiggling so much, but now my forehead kind of hurts.”

Getting a fight under his belt right at the end of March, Brennan is hoping to fight twice more this year. “I aim for three. We’ll see where we are in the year and go from there.”

If you haven’t heard of Lucas Brennan just yet, there might be a reason: despite his undefeated record, he admits he hasn’t built his brand on social media.

“I don’t much, if I’m being totally honest. I do a poor job of it. I don’t post enough, I don’t really do enough, when I do post it’s really random, and it’s memes if anything. I need to brand myself more, and I probably should, it would probably help me out a little bit,” Brennan acknowledged. “But I don’t really know how to do that. And if I talk for too long, the ’tisms start coming out. I don’t get enough good stuff going. I don’t post enough. I could brand myself better, but I post like once a month. It’s not enough at all.”

He’ll just have to keep winning, then — which hasn’t been a problem so far.

Watch the full Bellator 293 post-fight press conference with Lucas Brennan above.

The post Bellator 293: Lucas Brennan Admits He Doesn’t Do Enough on Social Media appeared first on Cageside Press.

“I do, do that a lot in training, and get in trouble with it because I go in that position and then get stuck there a little bit. Today it worked so I’m not going to complain,” Collins told reporters including Cageside Press at her post-fight scrum on Friday.

Collins (4-0) made her Bellator debut against Sorenson riding a three-fight win streak outside of the organization. The 27-year-old from Australia made the most of the opportunity and added a big name to her resume right off the bat.

With a big win in the bag now and still early in 2023 Collins hopes to get back into the cage sooner than later.

“Hopefully another fight this year. Since starting MMA…we were in a pandemic as well, but I’ve only had one fight a year for my whole career so I’d like to get a year where I have at least two fights. That’d be nice,” she said.

“I just want to keep fighting.”

Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Sara Collins above. She defeated Pam Sorenson with a first-round submission at Bellator 293.

The post Bellator 293: Sara Collins Hopes For Active 2023 Following Win Over Sorenson appeared first on Cageside Press.

“A head kick knockout is always what you kind of wish for, right? You never know what’s going to happen. I was honestly thinking that I was going to go into 15 minutes of hell with that guy,” Hamel told reporters including Cageside Press at his post-fight scrum.

“Nick’s tough. I don’t even know if he’s ever been finished.”

It was a welcome result for Hamel who returned after a long layoff due to shoulder surgery.

“The last time I was in the Bellator cage I had a blowout shoulder. I had to fight opposite stance. That was the worst Mike Hamel 15 months ago,” he said.

“I went through a shoulder surgery, I had a fight fall through, so I wasn’t going to be denied tonight.”

When the sport you love is put on the back burner because of injury, lack of opponents, or other circumstances the return becomes that much sweeter. Hamel spoke on that.

“Nothing feels better than this. This sport, like I said before in other interviews, it beats your ass. It beats you down. It’s one of the hardest things you can put yourself through by choice. To get the results that I feel like I deserve and I earned nothing’s better than that,” Hamel said.

Now that he’s back and finished his fight in the first round, barring any undisclosed injury or circumstance, it seems as though Hamel is ready to return pretty soon.

“Anybody in that top 10 is really good, and honestly people right outside of it, are really good. I honestly don’t care. I want to keep building myself up,” he said.

“For being 30-years-old I’m still pretty young in this sport. I’ve got 15 fights, but I’m just getting exponentially better so whoever they want to feed me…(I was) once just a wrestler now I’m head-kicking people. Watch out.”

Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Mike Hamel above.

The post Bellator 293: Mike Hamel Speaks On Triumphant Return Following Shoulder Surgery appeared first on Cageside Press.

Field is now 2-1 in the promotion, and went the distance for the first time since 2019 to collect the unanimous decision victory.

“That was amazing for me,” Field told media outlets including Cageside Press following the fight. “Honestly I was worried about my cardio, going the distance, but I actually felt great and I probably could have done two more rounds.”

When it came time for the scorecards to be announced, the 32-year old admitted to just a small amount of nerves.

“I wasn’t sure. I don’t like to get excited and then get let down. I was a little bit nervous, but everyone was telling me I had it.”

The takeaways from the fight for Field were numerous. “I learned I can go the distance, I learned I can take a punch, I learned I can keep a smile on my face. Watch the video, I know you’ll see me smile a couple of times,” she noted. “I’m so happy to be here; we are so lucky to be a part of this organization.”

As for what comes next, “I’d love to fight one more time this year,” said Field, who is taking her daughter on vacation to Cuba later this year. An international card appeals to her, possibly in the fall.

Field also gave plenty of love to her team.

“I love these guys so much. Honestly they have taken beatings from me. Week by week. Honestly just building me up and bringing me to where I am today. If you watch my last fight, mentally I wasn’t there like I was this fight. I feel so loved and supported.”

Watch the full Bellator 293 post-fight press conference with Randi Field above.

The post Bellator 293: Randi Field Lists Numerous Takeaways from Cummins Win appeared first on Cageside Press.

“A lot of things in my head going into that fight. I had a, to be honest, piss-poor performance last time out. I just had my first-born. There’s a lot of things leading into that last fight that really affected me,” Piccolotti told reporters including Cageside Press at his post-fight scrum.

“Some medical issues and things like that. So coming into this fight I definitely had a lot on my head.”

Staying busy during the fight was the plan for Piccolotti who did not want to leave the fight in the hands of the judges.

“I know I’m one of the best grapplers in the world. My striking is right there at this point. I knew if I go in there, put my stuff together, stay busy, I could definitely get the finish,” he said.

Leaving it to the judges was not an option this time around with Piccolotti having seen enough, let’s say rough, decisions in his day go against him.

“I hate when people say ‘don’t leave it in the hands of the judges!’ right. This is a fight, but this is a sport. There should be proper judging, but there’s not. We all know this. I’ve been robbed two or three times in my career. Two times very blatantly. So not leaving it in the hands of the judges was definitely in my head,” he said.

“Getting a finish, even if it wasn’t a finish, something very dominant like be on his back pounding him out for the entire third round that would have done the trick I’m sure.”

That still could have gone against Piccolotti so he went ahead and eliminated any chance of getting robbed again.

“Not leaving it to chance. Getting that finish, adding another finish to my record, is kind of an important thing for me,” he said.

Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Adam Piccolotti above.

The post Bellator 293: Adam Piccolotti Details Issues In Last Fight, Strategy Against Nallo appeared first on Cageside Press.

“Holly soon-to-be-Trainer, she is my person, she’s everything to me. I’ve been wanting to do it for the past year. I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to do it. None of her friends date an MMA fighter at Bellator. I can’t afford to take her to Saint Tropez so I thought on live tv on Showtime in a bloody steel cage,” Trainer laughed as he spoke with reporters including Cageside Press at his post-fight scrum.

“That girl is everything. I’m going to make her very happy, very happy husband, and I’m going to put some babies in her soon. She’s the love of my life.”

A big night for Luke Trainer, who proposes to his girlfriend following his win! #SheSaidYes #Bellator293 | Watch LIVE on @SHOsports pic.twitter.com/URVkAcDFbo

— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) April 1, 2023

That was the second big win for Trainer on the night. The first was over up-and-coming light heavyweight Sullivan Cauley who he finished in the first round via submission.

“I’m going to be dead honest with you. This is the most nervous I’ve ever been for a fight. I really had to learn how to control my fear for this fight. The game plan has gone absolutely to T when I tell you I’ve doing nothing but subbing people from the back or TKO’ing people from the back for the past camp,” Trainer said.

“He shot out of panic. I knew if I just stayed relaxed, stayed calm, he’s going to gas himself out, make mistakes. He hasn’t been in a dog fight. He hasn’t been with someone who wants to be there, who embraces the violence. I knew that going into it.”

Even with the nerves Trainer remembered all of the things Cauley said about him in pre-fight interviews leading up to the fight.

“I was nervous and ready. All he was saying for all his interviews was how I’ve got nothing but being tall. I’ve got bad jiu jitsu. I’ve got bad striking. He’s the best wrestler,” he said.

“He wasn’t ready. This is going to teach him. He’s going to come back so much stronger. I felt really bad for the guy. He seems like a lovely dude. I respect the guy massively, but I was ready for a dog fight,” Trainer continued.

“I was prepared to die in there tonight, and I got the W doing that.”

Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Luke Trainer above.

The post Bellator 293: Luke Trainer Ready To Start Family After Proposing In Cage appeared first on Cageside Press.

“I can wrestle. I’ll take you down. If you choose not to respect my striking, you’ll regret that. If you choose to not respect the wrestling, you’ll regret it,” Colgan told reporters including Cageside Press at his post-fight scrum on Friday.

“And it hasn’t been shown yet, but if you choose not to respect my grappling, you’ll regret it.”

Colgan (7-0) of course has high-level wrestling and is thought of as someone whose biggest weapon is the takedowns and control. Justin Montalvo found out that Colgan also has high-level hands at his disposal, and the all-around game makes him one of the more exciting fighters on the Bellator roster.

“There’s a lot of people on this card who have great experience, done great things, but there’s a reason why they decided to put me on the main card,” he said.

The first-round finish wasn’t just a highlight reel ending for the young lightweight, but a much needed one as Colgan revealed that he had to deal with food poisoning throughout the week.

“This week week was a really rough week for me surprisingly. The weight cut day I caught food poisoning, was throwing up at the gym all over, couldn’t break a sweat. Went to bed still like 6 pounds over. Had to wake up at 1am, cut all that weight off, still made weight,” he said.

“After that I hadn’t been able to eat these last two days because my stomach still upset. I didn’t put on the weight that I normally put on. I came out there and dominated though.”

Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Archie Colgan above.

The post Bellator 293: Overlook Archie Colgan’s All-Around Game And ‘You’ll Regret It’ appeared first on Cageside Press.

James (15-6-1) was paired up with UFC vet Marcelo Golm, with the two ranked #7 and #5 in the division, respectively. An important fight, but many felt that Cat Zingano vs. Leah McCourt, the evening’s co-main event, carried more weight as a potential title eliminator.

James went on to put Golm away with a devastating three-punch combo in the third round. It wasn’t enough to see him skip the line for a title shot, but James feels that his critics just aren’t MMA fans — though they’ll be believers now, as far as his abilities go.

“Yeah I shut them up. Those people that just said that, those people are really not MMA fans. You ask those people in the street, you say ‘hey what do you do?’ [They answer] ‘I do UFC.’ What is that? They’re not fans,” James told media outlets including Cageside Press. “An MMA fan is a person that studies the arts, watches fights from all different aspects, from Bellator to UFC to ONE FC. They watch all this. Them real fans.”

“Tonight, if you was a non-believer, you’re a believer now. How could you not like it? How could you not like what I did?”

Whether you’re a believer or not, James clearly believes in his own abilities, which have seen him win five fights split between ACA and Bellator MMA.

“Yeah, this is everything I expected,” James said when asked about a journey that has brought him back to Bellator, where he began his career. “I’m on a win streak, what is it, five, six, five? That’s more than a couple. So a five-fight win streak, just like I planned.”

“I feel like right now, you’ve seen me in the toughest situations in a fight. So right now, this point in my career, there’s no such thing as losing,” he continued. “That’s just me being confident. I know I put in enough work that if I can come out of something like that — you’ve seen the choke hold, you’ve seen me coming back from these devastating kicks. You’ve seen me being on the ground; I chose to wrestle on the ground with Marcelo Golm only because my leg, he did some damage, I’m being honest in saying that.”

Next for James is healing up the leg that Golm chewed up, then he plans to get back to training, as well as spending time with his boys, who have taken up boxing. But with Linton Vassell getting the next title shot, James has been offered a spot on Bellator 297 in Chicago. It seems he’s ready to accept.

“My leg will be healed, I heal like a dog. I literally heal fast. You can’t have nothing in Chicago without me,” exclaimed James. “People are already buying tickets, some people already texted me, like ‘yo I’mma get my floor seats now.’ Chicago, they’re waiting on me. And it’s in June. So we’re there.”

Watch the full Bellator 293 post-fight press conference with Daniel James above.

The post Bellator 293: Daniel James Believes He Shut Up Critics of Main Event Billing appeared first on Cageside Press.

It just so happens that Salter (19-6) got to do it off a win, over a tough opponent in Aaron Jeffery. In what was a grinding, slow-paced affair, Salter came away with a clear-cut decision in his retirement fight.

“I knew I was done. I’m 38, I’ve been competing at a pretty high level since middle school and high school. Just a lot of intensity,” Salter told media outlets including Cageside Press following the fight. “I’m ready to move on to a part of my life where I live vicariously through other people in the gym.”

Salter will continue to run his gym and be involved in mixed martial arts. And he walks away off a win over a future contender in Aaron Jeffery, long considered a blue chop prospect in the sport. “It was just a real blessing to have a fight like that, with someone of that caliber. It would have been great to get an easy fight to go out on, but it was really good,” said Salter. “I knew this last camp, I had to treat it like I’m fighting for a world title to be able to come out with a win.”

While he appears content with his decision, there is one fight out there that would get John Salter back in the cage: Costello van Steenis, if the Dutch fighter goes on to win gold. Salter picked up a unanimous decision win over van Steenis back in 2019.

“The only way that I come back is if Costello van Steenis wins the title and wants to fight me again. That would be the only way I come back,” Salter revealed. “I know he really wants to fight me again. I lost a few years off my life in that fight, but I’ll do it again if he’s got the title. That’s the only way.”

Watch the full Bellator 293 post-fight press conference with John Salter above.

The post Bellator 293: John Salter Reveals the One Fight He’d End Retirement For appeared first on Cageside Press.