Mike Mucitelli made his Bellator debut in 2012 and is coming off the fastest submission win in Bellator light heavyweight division history as he defeated Mark Griffin by armbar in 37 seconds at Bellator 123.
That fight took place in September and his next fight will not take place in the Bellator cage, even though he is still with the promotion.
“Bellator has a new direction going on and they are holding a few less events,” Mucitelli told The MMA Report. “I am still with them, the last I checked. I just have to stay busy and a fighter has to fight as corny as that sounds. CES puts on a good show and I actually made by debut with them awhile ago. I want to keep fighting. I do not want to sit on the shelf. That is the worse thing a fighter can do.”
Prior to the win over Griffin, Mucitelli (7-1, 1NC) suffered his first career defeat as he lost to Liam McGeary in the 2014 Bellator Summer Series light heavyweight tournament quarterfinals. Fighters always talk about the lessons they learn in defeat and for Mucitelli, he learned he needed to revamp his striking.
“That fight is something that is still with me pretty much everyday,” he said. “It’s not something that goes away because obviously that was the biggest shot and the biggest moment for me at that time. Going into it, I had done a lot of different things in my training camp. I did not do it at my usual school. I was down in Philadelphia — training at Team Balance. Just training down there. Coming up to the fight. Everything with it has changed a lot of views on how I am handling fighting and just how to approach the fights.”
“On a fight level, it has changed my game a ton. I went back to square one on my striking because he was talking about how we saw something his tapes and I had to go back and look at my tapes. See where my stance was wrong. The way I was extending this arm was wrong. It was really revamped from square one. Training wise, taking some of the knowledge I gained down there at a larger school and bringing that back to my smaller school up state.It’s really changed how I train, how I approach, and how I look at my own game. It was kind of a revolutionary point for my life as a fighter I guess.”
Mucitelli went on to admit that he hates to have a lost on his record, but also understands it may have been the best thing to happen to him. It made him realize the changes he had to make and he plans to be rooting for McGeary next Friday night against Bellator light heavyweight champion Emanuel Newton. He wants to work his way up the ranking to get a rematch with McGeary and fight for the title.
He will be looking for his second straight win on March 13 at CES MMA 28 when he meets Greg Rebello in Rhode Island. Rebello is a veteran of the sport as he has 23 career fights and could be looking to use the fight against Mucitelli to spring board his way into a fight in Bellator or the UFC.
“I’ve got a solid record going and I have had a lot of fights in Bellator recently. I think he is going to be trying to take me out so he can spring himself back into Bellator or into the UFC, or wherever he wants to go. I have to make sure that does not happen on my watch. I need to show that it’s not like I belong on undercards or anything like that. 4-0, 5-0 guys is one thing, but those guys that have that ring experience, that is the type of guy that I need to take out. I need to do it in a way people will see that I am a main carder and the fact that I got clipped by a world champ is the only way I can have a lost.”
Mucitell recently tweeted that “he is coming to make a statement” against Rebello at CES MMA 28. What kind of statement is Mucitelli looking to make? He wants to show everyone that he is not a preliminary card fighter and he should be fighting on main cards.
“I want to go out there and make this statement that I am not an undercard guy,” Mucitelli explained. “I am not just happy being at a big show. I want to be consider a world elite. I want to be considered on of the best walking. I do not want to be good, I want to be amazing. To do that, I got to face tough opponents and I got to come out on top that shows that there is no doubt.”