Egidijus Valavicius will look for his third win in the Bellator cage as he will meet Liam McGeary in the semifinals of the Summer Series light heavyweight tournament at Bellator 122 tomorrow night in California.
Valavicius was signed by Bellator at the end of last year when he came to Philadelphia for an open tryout and Bellator matchmaker Sam Caplan decided to sign the Lithuania fighter to a multi-fight deal.
His debut with Bellator would come at Bellator 110 in February and he scored the seventh fastest TKO/KO win in Bellator light heavyweight history as he defeated Atanas Djambazov in 48 seconds. Following the victory, he was placed into the Summer Series light heavyweight tournament and defeated Carlos Eduardo by split decision in the opening round to secure his spot in the semifinal round.
He has been training in the United States since this tournament begin and his toughest challenge in training camp has nothing to do with what happens inside the gym. The most difficult part of training in the United States is being away from his daughter.
“Training here in the United States for this tournament away from my family has not been easy, to say the least,” Valavicius said. “I miss my daughter Enrika very much. Being away from her is the most difficult part of my training camps. But I have to make sacrifices in order to have a better future for her. I think it’s worth everything I do.
“Family is most important in my life. I even have a tattoo saying ‘My Family – My treasure.’ I was so happy to have Enrika here for 3 weeks after my last fight, we went to Disneyland and spent a lot of quality time together.”
At this time, he has not considered moving his family to the United States where he trains. He admitted that one day that could happen and right now, it hurts him every time he as to leave his daughter to come train in the United States.
“Being that I spent the later part of my childhood without my father in my life, it’s very important for me to spend as much time as I can with my daughter. It always kills me inside when I have to say goodbye to her again.”
When it comes to his fight against McGeary tomorrow night at Bellator 122, Valavicius will enter the fight as the more seasoned fighter and some people may consider that an advantage for him. However, Valavicius looks at his experience advantage over McGeary in a different way.
“All the experience I have in my career has made me a better fighter today than ever before,” he said. “Fighting in different organizations for such a long time gave me so much experience. I am glad to have this chance to fight in this Bellator tournament. I have accumulated so much experience over the years and combining it with my current training system, I think I am in the best fighting shape of my life.
“Even if it’s good to be most experienced fighter in this tournament, I don’t make such a big deal out of it. This fight with Liam McGeary will be the toughest fight of my career, and if I would think being experienced would win me the fight, I would already be losing it. I train for this fight every day. I think about it every day and only time will tell if my experience will help me win this fight. Honestly, I don’t think it gives me any advantage in the fight.”
Valavicius and McGeary have combined to win 28 fights by stoppage and the Lithuania fighter has a simple message to the fans, don’t blink.
“I can assure you, this will be a great fight. This fight is not going to judges — period. Don’t blink.”