Marcos Galvao will get his second chance to become the Bellator bantamweight champion next Friday night at Bellator 135 in Oklahoma as he will meet Joe Warren in a rematch of their 2011 bout.
Galvao (16-6-1) has three straight fights since losing to former Bellator champion Eduardo Dantas at Bellator 89 and his most recent victory came at Bellator 118 as he defeated Thomas Vasquez by unanimous decision.
It was nearly four years ago that he faced Warren as that bout was a catchweight bout of 137 pounds and at that time, Warren was the Bellator featherweight champion. While many people believe that Galvao won the fight, the three judges scoring the fight gave the fight to Warren. Does Galvao view this rematch with Warren as unfinished business?
“I do not think there is any unfinished business,” Galvao told The MMA Report. “I think I finished the business during the fight. Everybody watched what I did. I beat him in every aspect of MMA. Wrestling, jiu-jitsu, on the fight. Everything. I do not know how they scored it. I understand the media scored it for me and I don’t know how the judges scored it for him.”
Since their first meeting, Warren has made the move to bantamweight and defeated Dantas last year to become the unified Bellator bantamweight champion. Warren recently told The MMA Report how he is a different fighter now than he was in the first meeting with Galvao, but Galvao basically believes Warren is the same fighter.
“I think even though he might have improved in certain aspects of MMA, I think he is always going to go back to his roots. He is a very strong wrestler. He likes to move forward and that is what he wants to do. He wants to wrestler. He wants to hold onto me and grind out a decision.”
With the wrestling style of Warren, many people would expect that Galvao brought in several wrestlers into his camp to prepare for this. However, Galvao explained that this is not the case.
“A lot of people do not believe me, but I do not bring in anybody for my wrestling. The same guys that helped me for the first fight are the same guys that are helping me now. Same group I have had for a long time and I did not think I needed to bring anyone in.”
After how the first meeting with down, does Galvao know he can not leave it in the hands of the judges and the plan is to win the fight by finish?
“It’s a lot easier said than done. From the beginning to the end of the fight — all of my fights. I am looking to finish. When you are fighting a top caliber fighter like Joe Warren, top ten guy in the world. It’s not that easy to finish the fight and not leave it in the judges hands. That is definitely what I am going for, but it’s not always that easy.”
When Galvao was asked for a prediction on the fight, he was short and quick. He plans to do something he has been unable to do in his professional MMA career.
“I think I am going to submit him.”