The semifinal round of the season ten heavyweight tournament will take place tomorrow night at Bellator 116 as Mighty Mo Siliga will look to remain undefeated in Bellator as he meets former Bellator champion Alexander Volkov.
Siliga (6-2) was signed by Bellator last year and won back to back fights before being placed into this tournament.
In the opening round, he faced former tournament finalist Peter Graham and won his second straight fight by submission. He secured the submission in the third round and Siliga wanted to get the finish in the fight as he did not want to leave the fight in the judges hands.
“One thing I’ve learned from being in the fight game is that I hate going to the judges,” Siliga said. “I thought he might slide away with the ‘W’ just because of the leg kicks he was giving to me. Going into the 3rd round when I saw what his conditioning was, I thought he was doing worse than me so I pushed the issue.”
“I started getting more aggressive and I noticed that he was throwing knees at me. It would’ve took some serious wind just to shoot a takedown and try to drive through it, so I set him up to throw that knee. I gave him that opportunity to throw a knee, then I caught it and took him down, and eventually tapped him out.”
He will now face Volkov tomorrow night in the semifinals of this tournament and look to move one step closer to a title shot in Bellator. Volkov (20-4) is the former Bellator heavyweight champion and fifteen of his career victories have come by TKO/KO. However, Siliga believes that Volkov can not take a punch.
“I haven’t watched much of Alexander Volkov fight but I see his body type and I see the way he moves,” Sigila stated. “And I see that he can’t take a punch. That’s what’s going to hurt him. He doesn’t look like he has a strong-man’s game and taller guys are easier for me. Once they hit the ground, nobody’s taller. I don’t think he’ll be able to stand with me. I’m gonna bring it to this guy.”
Nearly every time that Volkov steps into the cage, he will have a height and reach advantage and that will be the case tomorrow night. He is six inches taller that Siliga and will have a seven inch reach advantage. Siliga believes that Volkov will attempt to stay on the outside during the fight and is not worried about fighting a taller fighter.
“I can see him trying to keep it outside and stay out of my range, but he’s messing with a true fighter. He’s got a lot of open areas that I’m going to capitalize on. I’ve fought guys who were around seven-feet tall before so I’m not worried about it.”
Currently, Volkov is nearly a three to one favorite in the fight and Siliga has been an underdog in two of his three fights in Bellator. He is fine with people considering him the underdog due to Volkov being the former Bellator heavyweight champion.
“People are saying that Volkov should be the favorite and that’s fine because he used to be champion. But you always want to look at someone’s last fight and see how they did. No disrespect intended man, but his last opponent wasn’t all that great. The shot I saw Volkov take – I think it was just a jab – I could’ve ended him with that one punch. I don’t see him being able to take any my punches like that and still be standing. If he does? My hat’s off to him.”