Bjorn Rebney: Adam McDonough Could Be Like Michael Chandler, Pat Curran

---

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney has some high praise for undefeated welterweight Adam McDonough, who knocked out Nathan Coy last week at Bellator 116.

In an interview with the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show, Rebney compared McDonough’s potential to two of his company’s best fighters. The Bellator boss also discussed Karo Parisyan’s win over Ron Keslar and more.

On McDonough: “Zach Light, who works in our talent development department, went out to Minnesota. He really went out throughout the whole country and went to South America -- he’s been all over the world -- and he called me up. This was a while back, about Adam. He goes, ‘Look, I’m in a camp right now. I’m watching this kid train.’ He goes, ‘We’ve got to sign this kid. He’s something special.’ Zach’s the kind of guy who can get in, who can spar with people, who can roll. He’s fought at the highest level, and he said the kid had something special.”

On where McDonough’s career could go: “What it smells like and what it looks like right now going in is it looks like it conceptually could be one of those Pat Curran, Michael Chandler type of stories. ... He’s a special talent. He’s a special talent.”

On Parisyan’s win: “All the ability has always been there. Nobody’s ever questioned the fact that he’s got the talent and the ability. I think Karo would be the first guy to say it to you: He has been his own worst enemy inside and outside the cage. If he’s right and if everything’s good and he’s calm and he’s in the right place, he’s dangerous. I mean, really dangerous. He’s got all the skills. If he’s in shape and focused and everything’s working right for him upstairs, he’s a dangerous fighter and we saw it. We saw it against a talented fighter last week.”

On Parisyan’s future: “If we can keep that train going, then it’s exciting because everybody loves a comeback. Everybody loves a guy who has been really, really out and out of play to come back in and have a run, and it would be great to see it with Karo. The question is can Karo make that happen? If Karo can make that happen, we’ve got some more exciting fights in line for him.”

On the welterweight title fight Friday between Douglas Lima and Rick Hawn: “Lima and Hawn are both big finishers. … Four of Doug’s last five fights have been brutal knockouts. I don’t know if all four, but at least three of the four probably are in our top-10 greatest knockouts ever. Rick is a spectacular tactician who can knock you out with one punch with a right hand. We’ve seen that with a lot of different fights with Rick. It just has fireworks written all over it. I would be very surprised in this fight, given the fact that neither of these guys look to typically take any fight to the ground, that it goes very long.”

Listen to the full interview (beginning at 30:47).