Brandon Halsey dropped down to the middleweight division last year and after winning a tournament, he scored the fastest victory in Bellator title fight history as he submitted Alexander Shlemenko in 35 seconds to win the 185 pound title.
Halsey (8-0) is quickly become one of the best fighters in Bellator and his last two wins have come by submission in the first round.
The win over Shlemenko was seven months ago and Halsey told The MMA Report that he did not celebrate the victory very long as he went right back into the gym to evolve as a fighter.
“Right after the win, it’s back in the gym and continue to improve,” Halsey said. “Just be able to evolve as a fighter and continuing improvements, techniques, strength, and everything. No time for celebration just time for work.”
Next Friday night, he will make his first middleweight title defense as he is challenged by Kendall Grove in the main event of Bellator 137. Grove has won two of his three fights in Bellator and is coming off a stoppage win against former Bellator light heavyweight champion Christian M’Pumbu.
Grove (21-14) is a veteran of the sport and has been in the cage with several notable names in the sport including Alan Belcher, Evan Tanner, Mark Munoz, and Tim Boetsch. While he has been in the cage with highly skilled fighters in the past, Halsey believes that Grove is king of average in every aspect of his MMA game.
“I do not find him a dangerous guy. He does not have knockout power. He is not the highest level Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu guy,” he said. “He is just one of those guys that is just there. He is kind of average in every aspect of his MMA game. I don’t find him a threat really. Like I said, as long as I stay composed and do what I am capable of, the fight is not going to go over to pretty for him.”
Recently, Halsey made comments to Sherdog about moving back up to the light heavyweight division to face Phil Davis. This statement caught the attention of the MMA community, but should this really be a surprise? Everyone knows that the Bellator middleweight division is not the deepest division in that promotion and fighters compete for money.
“It’s not surprise that the light heavyweight division is a little bit deeper than the middleweight division,” Halsey explained. “Me going up to 205 makes business sense. We have families to feed and it’s out job. I am not a bartender trying to moonlight as a fighter. This is what I do for a living. Going up to 205 makes sense business wise. Bigger names, bigger fights, and more money would be on the table.”
“That is something we would entertain and obviously, I want to fight better competition to build myself and challenge myself. Distance myself from the competition and fight the best in the world. They just signed Phil Davis who is a top ten guy in the world and I would love to challenge myself next against a top ten guy.”