Blackzilian middleweight Kendrick Miree will return to mixed martial arts competition for the first time in nearly two years on Saturday night at Valor Fights 33 in Tennessee as he will challenge middleweight champion Sidney Wheeler in the main event of the fight card.
Miree (5-2) enters this fight following back to back defeats in the World Series of Fighting and this will be his first fight since losing to Jake Heun at WSOF 11 twenty-two months ago. During this past Thursday’s edition of “The MMA Report Podcast,” Miree was a guest on the show to preview his fight on Saturday at Valor Fights 33 and explain how he plans to exploit the holes in Wheeler’s game.
“Well, I was in the same place that Sidney was,” Miree stated on The MMA Report Podcast. “I was 5-0 at the time and was stepping into a big promotion like World Series of Fighting. I can put myself in his shoes a little bit as far as where mine would be and to be at a young age of 19, so I really think the kid is on cloud nine right now. As far as confidence, I see confidence in Sidney. I expect him to come out blazing. I see a couple of holes in his game, but I am quite sure over time, he is going to tighten up on them. He has a lot of time on his hands. Me, I am just going to exploit them.”
“I am probably his first real test. I am a world class athlete. I am not an ordinary 185’er,” he continued. “I normally walk around at like 240. He has to deal with my size and punching power. It’s a lot of different things that he has to worry about when he fights me. As far as my size, my grappling ability and my improve striking. I can’t really say a whole lot about Sidney because he is so young. We see that he can throw some punches and some kicks. We see that he has some counter wrestling, but we have not seen him do it against someone like myself. The only thing I can expect from Sidney is that he is coming to come out and fight hard. Sidney is going to have the crowd behind him since I am fighting him in his hometown. It might work in his favor and it might not. He might burn himself out. All I expect from Sidney is to come out fighting hard.”
Check out Miree’s complete interview from Thursday’s episode of “The MMA Report Podcast” below and be sure to subscribe to the show on iTunes and Stitcher.