Joe Warren believes he has a mental and physical edge on unbeaten Bellator Fighting Championships featherweight titleholder
Joe Soto -- the man he expects to see in a five-round duel sometime in September.
“I feel way more confident about who I am in a ring and cage than I did before,” Warren told the Sherdog Radio Network’s
“Savage Dog Show” program. “He’s smaller, he’s intimidated and he can’t go with me [for] that long period of time. Whenever they want, we’re ready.”
Perfect in nine professional appearances, Soto stopped durable Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt
Diego Saraiva on a first-round cut at Bellator 19 two months ago. The 23-year-old ascended to Bellator’s featherweight throne in 2009, with tournament wins over
Ben Greer, EliteXC veteran
Wilson Reis and
Yahir Reyes. Soto, who has finished seven of his nine foes inside one round, wrestled alongside UFC standouts
Cain Velasquez and
Jon Jones at Iowa Central Community College.
“He’s a good fighter. He’s a good wrestler,” Warren said. “He knows what he’s good at. He’s got some good double-legs and good ground-and-pound. I usually don’t have a lot of people take shots at me. I’m actually pretty excited. I hope he does try to attack me. I’m sure I’m going to win a three-round battle or catch him on the ground with some elbows. I have long arms and real sharp elbows.”
Warren’s immediate plans center on Soto and the Bellator crown, but his long-range goals are far-reaching. A decorated Greco-Roman wrestler who won gold at the 2006 Pan-Am Games, the 2006 FILA Wrestling World Championships and the 2007 Wrestling World Cup, Warren was a collegiate All-American at the University of Michigan. He has set his sights on the 2012 Olympics in London.
“My long-term goal is to win this belt here for Bellator, go win three fights in Dream this year, take their belt, too, and defend the belts after the New Year, and then take time off and go win the Olympics,” Warren said. “We’ll see what happens after that.”
Warren sees no substitute for gold.
“I’m not going there not winning it,” he said. “I know how to wrestle. I’ve spent my whole life doing it. I think if everything works the way I want to, I think we’ll get a gold medal here and finally retire from wrestling. I’m more certain about that than anything else.”
Still, his immediate task revolves around lifting Bellator’s featherweight crown from Soto. Warren outpointed the previously unbeaten Patricio “Pitbull” Freire en route to a unanimous decision to win the 2010 Bellator featherweight tournament last month. The victory, however, did not come easily. Stricken by illness the day of the fight, Warren survived a first-round onslaught from the Brazilian that included a near knockout and near submission. He fought through the adversity, inside and outside the cage.
“I ate a bad piece of pork the night before,” Warren said. “Woke up in the morning just sick as a dog. Both ends, every half an hour. Couldn’t keep a dang thing in me. I mean nothing. I just tried to sleep most of the day and stay focused, but I didn’t have anything in me.”
Warren stunned the mixed martial arts community in 2009, when he debuted with a first-round technical knockout win over former World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight champion
Chase Beebe and then outpointed Japanese standout Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto. The 33-year-old father of two admits he remains a work in progress.
“I’m going to continue to fight until I learn how to fight. The more competition I have, the more I’m able to learn about fighting,” Warren said. “I feel way more comfortable in the cage now than I did two fights ago. It just takes time.”
Despite his entry into Bellator’s featherweight pool, Warren’s future lies in the 135-pound division.
“I’ve been in against a lot heavier guys, too, so I haven’t been able to revert to a lot of the things they’ve been teaching me,” he said. “I’ve had to use a lot of my strengths and muscle to get through some stuff. We’ll see in the next year when I’m down at [135] and those guys try to get away from me.”
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