...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
With Bellator Featherweight Champion Pat Curran sidelined due to injury, there's a backup in challengers in the 145 lb. weight class. Curran had already leapfrogged Patricio "Pitbull" Freire to get the fight against Joe Warren earlier this year, taking full advantage of the opportunity by knocking Warren out in the third round.
Pitbull's been out of action since May of 2011, when he defeated Daniel Straus by decision in the season four featherweight finals, and as soon as Curran's ready to return the two of them will fight. But that leaves Straus awaiting a fight for the belt as well, as he earned his own shot by winning the season six featherweight tournament this spring.
As there's no date in sight for the Curran-Freire fight, Straus has opted to keep himself busy, which he'll do on Friday at Bellator 78. Straus takes on former UFC fighter Alvin Robinson, simply looking to avoid a long layoff. Though it could be a risky proposition for a fighter awaiting a title shot to take another fight, Straus doesn't see things that way.
"[There's] no risk at all. It's just like any other fight for me," Straus told MMATorch on Thursday. "I have a tough opponent, I had to prepare for a tough opponent. I know I'm in line for a title shot, but I'm not a guy to just sit on the sidelines. So I've prepared myself to fight somebody, and that's what I'm going to do."
"I don't want to take too many, but I want to stay active and stay busy. If I take this fight and three or four months down the road there's still nothing going, yeah I'm going to try to go ahead and get another fight. I'm not going to take this fight, then they fight, and still be asking for other fights before a title fight. I'm just going to play the scenario out and see what's going and see how things play out."
He's taking Robinson seriously as a veteran competitor and a challenge, and expects a good fight on MTV2 on Friday night. However, he's still focused on capturing Bellator's Featherweight Championship.
Whether it's Curran or Freire, it will mark a rematch for Straus of one of his four career losses. He was stopped by Curran back in 2009, then tallied off 12 straight wins before his decision loss to Freire. However, Straus doesn't care which fighter has the belt; he's learned things from both losses and believes he's a completely different fighter, and he just wants to fight whichever one of them holds the belt after their fight.
"I just want to fight whoever has that belt," Straus said. "That's my only concern. I'm not really in this game to get back at anybody for any losses, I'm just trying to be the best fighter that I can be. So whoever has that belt, that's the guy that I want to fight."
"I changed drastically after the Pat loss; went on a two year, 12-fight win streak," he continued. "I was doing so well, then I lost to Pitbull, and I got to kind of sit back and find out where my flaws are at, and I got to capitalize on that. I've grown drastically from each loss. I'm a very different fighter from when I fought Pitbull, I'm a very different fighter - obviously - from when I fought Pat Curran. Right now I'm a different fighter, and I'm still growing. Hopefully I don't have to get another loss to show how much I [can] grow, but throughout the game I'm just growing."
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
