The co-main event of tonight’s Bellator 148 will be a rematch in the welterweight division as Chris Honeycutt will look to remain unbeaten in his career when he takes on Paul Bradley.
The first meeting between the Bellator welterweights came 196 days ago at Bellator 140 and the fight was declared a no-contest following an accidental clash of heads. The cage side doctor would stop the fight due to a cut on Bradley’s head and they will continue their battle tonight at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California.
With this being the second fight between the former college wrestlers, what did Honeycutt learn about Bradley in the first fight that he may have not known about him prior to their meeting at Bellator 140?
“I kind of knew what Paul was all about going into it. I thought the fight was going to what I thought was pretty smoothly until the clash of heads,” Honeycutt told The MMA Report. “Obviously, that was terrible and ended the fight with a no-contest, which was bad. I learned that Paul wanted to go in and strike with me. Thinking I was just a wrestler and I have not fought someone as experience as him.”
“Little did he know, the guys I have at my gym,” he continued. “I have Ed Ruth coming in, which is a high caliber wrestler. I have Aaron Pico and I train with Josh [Koscheck] on a day to day basis. You can’t get much more higher level than that. Going into this fight, I feel like I overwhelm him in every aspect.”
One of the sayings we hear in the fight game when it comes to rematches is why the loser in the first fight has the advantage in the second fight. However, neither guy won or lost in the first fight, so who has the advantage heading into tonight?
“I got better cardio because I am younger. I am obviously going to come in with a little more energy,” Honeycutt explained. “Two, our wrestling accolades are almost even but I do have a slight advantage on accomplishments. I am not going to say that makes me that much better of a wrestler, but I do believe that I am. After watching the first round and being in the first round of our last fight, my striking skills are far superior to Paul’s. I feel like unless he can eat punches and eat takedowns. Somehow grind his way through, he might make it through the whole fight.”
Honeycutt truly feels that if the first fight was not stopped due to the clash of heads, that he would have eventually finished the fight and that is what he plans to do tonight. He is predicting a TKO finish in the third round and we will have to tune into Spike TV tonight starting at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT to see if Honeycutt’s prediction will become reality.