Larkin: Dealing with Bellator is ‘refreshing’
Lorenz Larkin: “It’s refreshing, just to have the head guy talk to you and work on the whole deal with you and talk about what you need and what you’re looking for.”
Bellator NYC is an odd mix. The Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva main event fighters are past their prime, with a combined age of 80. The heavyweight G.O.A.T. co-main Fedor Emelianenko is past his prime and it almost makes it worse that he’s facing a fighter who is not in Matt Mitrione. Michael Chandler vs. Brent Primus is a good fight, but one-sided. And Aaron Pico could be the future of the sport, but making an MMA debut on a PPV is almost without precedent since the earliest days of the sport. However, Douglas Lima vs. Lorenz Larkin is a tremendous fight.
If you are a hardcore MMA fan, you have to watch the card. It’s Fedor for one, and that’s enough. Wand and Sonnen waited many years to fight making this a must-see stop on a legends tour. Pico may be the guy about who you can say, “I saw him when.” And to repeat Douglas Lima vs. Lorenz Larkin is awesome.
Lima is coming off a decision win over Paul Daley, followed by a first round crushing of Andrey Koreshkov to regain his Bellator title. Larkin is coming off a split decision over Jorge Masvidal, followed by a first round crushing of Neil Magny, who had been on a three-fight win streak.
Larkin let his UFC contract run out, tested free agency, signed with Bellator MMA, and likes it.
It’s a complete 180, said Larkin to Chuck Mindenhall for MMA Fighting. It’s just so easy. It’s easy to just, whatever’s on my mind I can talk about. These are things that I expressed during free agency, but it was never anything written out. But it’s just showing me that it’s the right decision. It’s probably the most marketing I’ve ever got. It’s crazy to go from that to being in limbo to this.
I never dealt with Dana or anything like that businesswise. If I’d seen him we’d share a couple of words and talk, so that was never a problem. But as far as business, it never worked like that.
With Scott it was really easy. We worked out the deal, it was me and him on the phone that sealed it. It’s refreshing, just to have the head guy talk to you and work on the whole deal with you and talk about what you need and what you’re looking for, as well as what they’re looking for.
I’ve fought guys like Lima. … This is not me talking s***, it’s just the way he fights. He’s had success at it, but he can’t go out and find somebody that’s going to mimic me, because I don’t even know half the s*** I’m going to do.”