Following the withdrawal of Eddie Alvarez from his lightweight title defense against Michael Chandler at next Saturday night’s Bellator 120, Chandler will now face Will Brooks for the interim lightweight title in the co-main event of the fight card.
Brooks was already scheduled to be on the fight card as he was initially booked to face Nate Jolly on the main card of Bellator 120.
He received the call from Bellator yesterday about stepping up on one week’s notice to face Chandler for the interim title and he did not hesitate in taking the fight.
“I have been waiting for this opportunity,” Brooks said. “Even before I got back into the tournament and even before I signed with Bellator and when I first got into this sport, I was thinking how do you become one of the best fighters in your division. You fight the best fighters. So what I did, I jumped online and I started looking at the list of the top lightweights in my division and of course there is Chandler, Alvarez, [Anthony] Pettis and all of these different guys.”
“Right now, I am signed with Bellator. The top guys I can get my hands on are Alvarez or Chandler. Right now, I’ve been given the opportunity to fight Chandler. This is what you do to become the best. You have to fight the best and beat the best. For them to give me this opportunity, there is no hesitation. This is just excitement. This is fun. I am ready to go. I am ready to do this.”
Brooks (13-1) was signed by Bellator in early 2013 and was immediately placed into the season eight tournament. He was eliminated in the semifinals of that tournament and would be placed into the season nine tournament after winning a non-tournament fight during the 2013 Summer Series. In the season nine tournament, he would defeat John Alessio, Saad Awad, and Alexander Sarnavskiy to secure his lightweight title shot.
While some mixed martial arts fans may not know who Will Brooks is, the fans of Bellator are very familiar with his fighting style and abilities. Brooks has heard what fans think of him and knows that people will be doubting him in this fight. However, he promises that people who do not currently know who he is will know who he is following his fight against Chandler next Saturday night.
“There is a lot of people asking, ‘who is Will Brooks?’ A lot of people are doubting me, asking me these questions of what do I bring to the table. Listen, come Saturday night, when me and Chandler step into the cage, I am going to surprise everybody. I am going to take this opportunity and make sure people later on when my name is mentioned, they know exactly who I am.”
“They are going to know exactly who I am. They will not have to hesitate. They will not have to jump online to look me up. They will not have to ask me any of these naive questions or try to be all these trolls on Twitter, Facebook or whatever. They are definitely going to know who I am come Saturday night. I promise you that.”