The fighter known as “Intensity” will return to the Bellator cage tomorrow night as James Terry will meet Andre Santos in one of the four fights on the main card of Bellator 129.
Terry (14-7) has won three of his last four fights and his only defeat in that time period came in his Bellator debut against Rick Reeves at Bellator 115.
It was his fifth career defeat to come by decision and three of those have come by split decision which Terry recently stated that he should be considered the poster boy of bad decisions.
I’m like the poster boy for terrible decisions,” Terry said. “I feel very strongly about that. What makes it worse is that those fights were just short of having the major exposure that would normally have fans and media making a lot of noise about it. All the media writers and analysts have their scores for those fights posted online and they all scored those decisions for me.”
“There are three of my past fights that I won without a f–king doubt in my mind. I think there are four of my past losses overall that many would find extremely questionable if they looked into them, and that would be Caros Fodor, Bobby Green, Nah-Shon Burrell and Ricky Reeves. I can see the argument for Caros Fodor winning our fight even though the 30-27 scores are complete bulls–t.”
“The Bobby Green fight was a little closer because he got some momentum in the third round after I won the first two, he barely touched me and I rocked him a few times. But in the Burrell and Reeves fights, it’s like … what? What are these judges watching? I can’t help but wonder what it’d be like if I’d won those fights, because I’d be 18-3, and now a guy like Bobby Green is ranked like 6th or 7th in the world.”
“But everything happens for a reason. I think a lot of s–t in my life, especially in my wrestling career. I didn’t do what I was expected to do. I was kind of f–king around, I was just relying on my athletic ability and I just wasn’t focused. I was just a kid and I wasn’t training like I do now. There was this emphasis of ‘you gotta train harder, you gotta try harder.’ So all that adversity has made me ten times stronger now. I’m just a f–king animal now. Now I just eat, breathe and s–t MMA all day long. I would not want to be the guy standing across from me in the cage.”
Since losing to Reeves, he took a fight outside of Bellator and defeated Daniel McWilliams by TKO in the first round at 408 Fights: Battle of the Bay 3. His last six victories have come by TKO/KO and eight of his fourteen wins have come by TKO/KO.
“I wouldn’t want to fight me right now, because I’m a scary motherf–ker,” Terry said. “You’re going to do what I want you to do in a fight, no matter who you are. If I want to stand and bang with you, you’re gonna stand and bang. If I want to take you down, you’re going down. If you take me down, I’m getting the f–k back up.”
“Now I’ve been getting my Jiu-Jitsu on over the last few years, but I love to kickbox. I’m a wrestler, but if you teach a wrestler how to kickbox, you’ve got problems. I’m going to decide where the fight takes place. I can kickbox, I can wrestle and I have some serious power in my hands and my feet. I’m a scary fight for anyone. I’m a wrestler who can strike, and I ain’t no f–king slouch on the ground.”
His opponent tomorrow night, Andre Santos (36-9) is out of Brazil and will be making his Bellator debut. He is currently on a five fight winning streak and all of those victories have come by stoppage in the first or second round. While Terry admitted he does not know much about his opponent, he does understand he is taking on a veteran of the sport.
“I know very little about Andre Santos,” Terry admitted. “I know he’s very experienced and I know he has a lot of finishes. From what I’ve seen of him, I think he’s a very aggressive fighter – but I am too, so this will be exciting for the fans. I read an article saying he was one of the best prospects in the world. He’s a good submission guy and I’ve seen him drop a couple of guys, so he can strike too. But he’s just not going to be able to deal with the craziness that I bring.