MMAOddsBreaker’s Frank Trigg speaks with Bellator 143 light heavyweight Joey Beltran as he prepares for his upcoming co-main event bout this Friday night (September 25, 2015) against Kendall Grove at the State Farm Arena in Hidalgo, Texas.
The longtime veteran has a history of getting in wild, sloppy brawls, but he feels he needs to step up the technique if he wants to succeed:
“I definitely still feel the desire. I love mixed martial arts. I love martial arts in general. It definitely saved my life. I’m still improving every fight. Even the fights that I lost. The Emanuel Newton fight, ughhh, I was doing so good against the world champion. I was doing so fucking good! One mistake, but that fight and the Rampage fight taught me, if you’re gonna compete at the upper echelon, one mistake and you’re done. It really helped me. I really grew a lot from those two fights. I really took a step back and realized just being a hard, scrappy fighter wasn’t enough to get me those wins. I need to go back to the drawing board. I’ve made some changes in my training and I think it’s really gonna pay off. It’s been paying off in the gym, that’s for sure.”