Tyrone Spong Doesn’t Expect Angel DeAnda to Stand at World Series of Fighting 4
Angel DeAnda has 10 finishes via punches in 11 fights, but Tyrone Spong doesn’t anticipate a standup bout when they meet Saturday at World Series of Fighting 4. The event's undercard streams live and free on Sherdog.com.
Ahead of the matchup, the champion kickboxer joined the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show to discuss DeAnda, his goals for MMA and much more.
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On what he expects from Deanda: “I don’t have a glass ball, so I can’t predict what he’s going to do on August 10. I can’t even predict what I’m going to do August 10. Whenever the door is going to be closed, that’s when it’s going to happen. Everybody has a game plan until they get hit.”
On his game plan: “For sure I’m going to punch and
kick him. For sure.”
On experience: “I think he’s well experienced in MMA. His record speaks for itself. I’m just 1-0 in MMA. He has the upper hand in the experience part of fighting MMA. Fighting-wise, I think I have a little bit more experience dealing with some stuff. … He’s not showing up because he knows he’s going to lose. He’s showing up because he thinks he’s going to win. That makes him a dangerous guy.”
On whether he trains standup when training for MMA: “You’ve got to do everything because striking for MMA is different than striking in a kickboxing match. You’ve got to train everything. You’ve got to train your striking. You’ve got to train your grappling. You’ve got to train your jiu-jitsu, your wrestling, everything.”
On casual fans who may tune in: “I’ll make them a Spong fan. It’s not MMA, it’s not kickboxing -- it’s Spong. I’m going to open up my own gym with a style, the Spong style. It’s not MMA, it’s not kickboxing, it’s not boxing. It’s just straight badass fighting.”
On whether World Series of Fighting can match him against top competition: “I don’t know. I don’t think that I’m that far away from it. I’m working my ass off and I’m pretty confident about my own game and I know what I’m capable of. If it’s not World Series of Fighting who’s going to offer me that, I don’t know. We’re not there yet. World Series of Fighting is treating me very well. I’m very happy with the organization, the staff, everybody, Ray Sefo, the whole team. Great people. We’ll take it as it comes and we’ll see what the future brings.”
On his goals: “I want to be the baddest combat sports athlete ever. That’s why I’m doing kickboxing. That’s why I’m doing boxing and MMA. I’m going to do professional boxing too. That’s my goal. We’ll see what happens in the future. If an MMA organization is big enough to keep me to stick only with MMA, then I’ll probably go down as one of the biggest names in the 205 division because that’s where I’m going to compete and that’s what I want. If it’s a kickboxing organization that’s going to hold me down to just kickboxing, I’ll continue my legacy in kickboxing. If it’s a boxing organization that offers me … I’ll probably do the same there. Basically I just want to be one of the baddest combat sports athletes ever.”
Listen to the full interview (beginning at 2:43:42).
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