(PRESS RELEASE) -- After the battle of his life against Lyme disease MMA hall of fame veteran and former UFC champion Dave Menne is ready for retribution this Friday night May 15th against Omar de la Cruz in the Semi-Finals of the Bellator Fighting Championships Welterweight Tournament at the Aragon Ballroom Menne intends to demonstrate that he’s back and that Bellator’s tournament structure is the platform for this uprising. Menne has been upping his daily training regimen to prove that this tournament is his. After a grueling three round battle with formerly undefeated Frenchman Norman Paraisy at Bellator IV, which ended in a rear naked submission victory, Menne believes his experience gives him the advantage over De La Cruz.

“Experience helps in the process with fights that turn in an odd direction, you can dictate control, where things go and the pace,” remarked Menne. “A new person [in MMA] has the courage of not being in the fire that long and that can sometimes be a huge advantage for a person, [but] they sometimes don’t realize their limits. [Omar’s] very open, he’s seems to like to push the action. He does unorthodox things that can seem unexpected. Expect the unexpected.”

In preparation for the Bellator tournament style Menne has been revving up his training, with cardio, striking and trying to ensure he’s running at full RPMs for the Semi’s and hopefully the finals.

“[I am] slowly picking up training from fight to fight so I peak for the finals.”

Absent from MMA’s upper eschelon for years, Menne battled Lyme disease that threatened his life and used that unwanted time off as motivation to re-establish his spot at the elite level of this great sport.

“I’m getting past three or four years of not having a fun time,” remarked Menne. “I lost four or five years of my life and I’m just getting some of that back. I’ll be covering over a really raw area of my life. Chicago fans can expect a fast paced highly revved up competition. I’m going to go to finish the fight. There will be a lot of swinging and a lot of submissions. It will be exciting.”

When asked for last words Menne commented, “Come and watch and expect big things.”