Exciting English mixed martial arts competitor, Tom “K9” Green is aiming to return to the Bellator cage this June after an unfortunate debut loss last year at Bellator 200.

I recently spoke to Tom on the Martial Arts Chat Podcast show, and for those who are unfamiliar with his career Tom explained where it all began, his training and plans for the future.

For Green, it all started at school, competing in numerous athletics competitions at an impressive regional level. Eventually Tom would find himself in a boxing ring.

“I tried to find a sport where what you put in you get back out,” he said. ” I realized this when I started doing boxing, and again, the harder you work, you will reap the benefits from it. I started doing it for fitness, didnt really think it would go anywhere to be honest then after three months of training, maybe not even that, I got offered a fight and I obviously took that and knocked the guy out in 45 seconds and it sort of went from there.”

Green would compete in six more matchups, earning himself an English title.

During this time, Green had been training BJJ at Kinetics Fight Acadamy and Nova Forca with Mark Hobbs and Ricardo Da Silva. Many of Green’s teammates noticed his skills on the ground and suggested looking into MMA. Green replied, “I have followed MMA for a long time and I thought why not let’s give this a go.”

I was intrigued to how the transition from boxing to MMA was for the “K9” and what challenges he faced. Green told me at first it was a huge shock due to amount of knowledge needed in multiple areas and focused on bridging the gap between BJJ and boxing.

“I found kicking tough to start off with but now it’s one of my stronger points” Green stated. When asked how it felt sparring MMA opposed to purely boxing he replied, “When you box you have those big gloves on and you can hide behind the gloves a lot and the style I played was off the shoulder low guard kind of thing. It still works in MMA and I’m a strong believer in that as long as you know how to use it.” Green went on to explain how you cant just stand there on the spot and block with the gloves like boxing as the shots can easily slip through so a lot more movement is needed.

Now, seven years since his MMA debut, Green has earned a 12-3 record successfully winning a title during his journey. Green dominated his was through Fusion Fighting Championship leading him to opportunities within popular organisations Cage Warriors and currently Bellator.

Determined to improve his skills, Green has ventured overseas to Los Angeles, California, to train at the legendary Blackhouse gym. Blackhouse plays host to many UFC fighters such as Brian Ortega and Tony Fergusson at the time.

After a year out the “K9” is setting his sites at a Bellator event in June. Even though his opponent is yet to be announced, Green is confident in receiving his first win within the organisation and expects to do so in a dominant fashion.

However, Green has been very vocal about who he wishes to enter the cage with.

“I would love to fight Dillon Danis. I enjoy his banter with people and fight talk but hes like a cheap version of….I dunno,, He’s just trying to copy his mate McGregor, but just cant do it!” He continued to say, “He’s moving like how Conor McGregor moves or Gunnar Nelson. He’s moving like that but doesn’t understand it, at all! I’m not disrespecting his ground game, it’s obviously great but once again I’m a brown belt (BJJ) I’m not scared of his ground game by any means. He’s the guy who’s never really won anything.”

To listen to the whole interview with Tom Green go to https://www.spreaker.com/user/machat/tom-green

Chris Allen My name is Chris Allen and I live in the United Kingdom. I have been following the MMA scene for over 10 years and been involved in multiple podcasts available online. I am passionate about the articles I create and like to ensure the information I display is 100% accurate.

I started off by creating a Facebook page called MMA Fight Bible as a hobby for my evenings posting videos, news and other entertaining material. This led on to participating in Podcasts and in the process of creating my own. See author's posts