The Bellator light heavyweight title will be on the line in the main event of Bellator 124 on Friday night and the next title challenger will be decided in the co-main event as Liam McGeary meets Kelly Anundson in the final of the Summer Series Tournament.
McGeary has spent less than three minutes in cage time to punch his way into the final of this tournament as he defeated Mike Mucitelli in 22 seconds and Egidijus Valavicius in just over two minutes.
Of course, we should not be surprised by the quick finishes by McGeary as six of his eight career victories have come in the first round and his fight against Valavicius was the longest of his five fights in Bellator.
On the other side of the cage on Friday night will be Anundson (9-2), who defeated Rodney Wallace by unanimous decision in the opening round and defeated Philipe Lins in the semifinals after Lins suffered an injury to his knee in the fight.
Because of the style of Anundson, several people are calling this the toughest test in McGeary’s career due to the wrestling of Anundson. A talking point leading up to this fight has been about who had the toughest road to make it to this fight. Anundson believes he has faced the tougher competition which McGeary has strong words for his opponent on this subject.
“Kelly has to be out of his mind thinking that he had a tougher road to the finals than I did. He had a tougher road? He got into the finals because his opponent hurt his [expletive] knee! How can he turn around and say something like that [laughs]. I find that funny,” McGeary said. “I read an article that said Kelly Anundson was coming off a strong finish.”
“What strong finish? The guy blew out his knee and Kelly hammer fisted him while he was clutching onto his injured knee. How is that a strong finish? He laid on top of a guy for 15 minutes in his first fight and then his opponent blew out his knee in his next fight. Yeah, that’s really impressive. He’s lucky to be in the finals in my opinion.”
While McGeary resides in New York, he is originally from England so many people just assume that he does not have good wrestling. He is not worried about Anundson taking him down, because if this happens, he will submit him since he loves to fight off his back.
“I think a lot of people assume that because I’m English, I’m a little bit ignorant to the wrestling,” he said. “People keep telling me that Kelly Anundson is a wrestler. Oh he’s a wrestler, he’s a wrestler. So what’s he going to do? Take me down? Then I’ll just submit him. I love fighting off my back.”
“I’m sure Kelly Anundson’s going to do exactly what I expect him to do. He’s going to get punched in the face and he’s going to want to shoot on me. At that point he’s going to catch a knee or an elbow. I’m just not going to go in there and fight. Just like I always do. I’m going to go out there, punch him in the face and see what happens.”
Just like all of his previous fights, McGeary plans to get another win in the first round and it does not matter if it’s by knockout or submission. A victory will secure him a title shot against the of the main event between Bellator champion Emanuel Newton and Joey Beltran, which he wants Newton to get the victory.
“I want to Emanuel Newton to beat the [expletive] out of Joey Beltran,” he said. “Everyone knows that guy doesn’t deserve a shot at the title. I want Emanuel to beat the [expletive] out of him and then I’m going to fight Emanuel. Then I’m going to run a clinic on him as well. He’s seen what I’ve been doing to people so he needs to step his game up a bit. Because I’m [expletive] coming for all of them. I’m going to do the same exact thing to every last one of them.”