Bellator 229: “Koreshkov vs. Larkin” takes place tomorrow night (Fri., Oct. 4, 2019) at Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, Calif., featuring a Welterweight main event with big implications in the main event as former No. 1-ranked contender Lorenz Larkin (20-7, 1 NC) fights former champion Andrey Koreshkov (22-3).

Originally scheduled to meet in March of this year at the same venue, Larkin was forced to withdraw from the fight with an injury, leaving Koreshkov to face Michael Jasper instead. If “Spartan” Koreshkov intended to send Larkin a message he succeeded, dominating his replacement for all three rounds en route to an easy unanimous decision. Larkin has faced and beaten the best before though. With career wins over “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler, “Gamebred” Jorge Masvidal and Neil Magny to name a few, there’s no question “Da Monsoon” is ready for the challenge any fighter brings to the cage.

MMAmania.com recently spoke with Larkin about this key Welterweight division fight finally taking place and what led to it being postponed the first time around.

“Well, I hurt my back in training, and usually I have my goals set out when I’m dieting and getting prepared to make weight. With my back injury I just had days where I couldn’t train, so it was affecting my progress. Anyway long story short I made a call and gave Bellator a heads up like ‘I’m just letting you guys know my back is pretty messed up’ and I was told (by them) ‘Just give it some time’ because I gave them quite a bit of heads up.”

Unfortunately, no amount of giving it time was going to be enough time. Larkin presented everyone involved with an alternative since he still wanted to have the fight.

“So I did that, and still it would act up and I’d have to take two days off and then come back, and just that — it was a lot of that the whole camp. When it boiled down to it, the fight was in Temecula and it’s close to my hometown, so I didn’t want to NOT fight. So I said ‘The only way I can fight is if we do a catch weight, because I’m not going to keep trying to push myself and I’m not able to train like that.’”

Given both Larkin and Koreshkov have a big cut to make 170, the offer he put on the table doesn’t sound unreasonable, but the people involved seem to have felt otherwise.

“So anyway long story short they didn’t take the fight. I think I requested the fight to be at (1)80, yeah 80, and they didn’t accept it so the fight didn’t happen.”

Back injuries have derailed and curtailed many MMA careers, so I asked Larkin if there was anything he had done (or could do) to keep it from recurring.

“Yeah, you know I addressed it last camp. Once the fight was over, I was addressing it and getting it all right in this camp. Knock on wood {*rapping on a table*} but everything’s been good. No hiccups, no nothing.”

That answer actually made the back injury sound more chronic than not. Regardless Larkin is pleased to hear that Koreshkov has respect for him, and the feeling is definitely mutual.

“Oh! Good! You know I don’t have nothing bad to say about him. I just feel like with him it’s more of guys ducking (him). I never really dug deep down into his record until we were supposed to fight each other and then I was just like ‘Dude! He’s only fought Askren and Lima, and (Benson) Henderson doesn’t count, he’s a (1)55er, so I don’t count him as a top Welterweight.’ All these guys duck him. There are so many guys that are in the Welterweight division (and) they all don’t fight him!”

As Larkin likes to say “to make a long story short” he feels like he and Koreshkov are two “top five guys” who are leading contenders to earn a future Welterweight title shot.

“My thing is, as long as I’m fighting the top guys, I’m always in the talks of it — you know what I mean? Like that’s how I look at it. It’s not so much stringing together (big fights). As long as I’m always fighting the guys that are in the top five of Bellator, I’m always going to be in the talks of it. As long as I keep winning, who else is there? You’re going to grab somebody from what, the top six, the top eight?”

It’s so not an issue to Larkin though that he doesn’t care if the winner of Friday’s fight gets a title shot or not.

“That’s why I’m just like, I never really concern myself with none of that. I’m just like, as long as I fight the guy who I’m supposed to fight and and and come out with the W, then I’m good.”

Since Larkin was willing to go up to 180 to meet Koreshkov even with a back injury, is a Middleweight fight something he’d take if Bellator offered it in the future?

“The right fight, you know what I mean? But the only reason why I was going to entertain that (catch weight) was because I was just trying to be as fair as I could. I knew he wasn’t (passed) by 180 yet, and I wasn’t by 180 yet when I told Bellator that’s what was going to have to happen. It was one of those things where we were probably around the same weight, you know what I mean? And it would only be a little of a cut for us. It wasn’t like week of. It was more than enough time where he wasn’t walking around at 183. He had to be in the (1)90’s for sure.”

The only fair thing to do this time is to have them both square up at Welterweight and see who the better man is in Temecula, California on Friday night.

Complete audio of our interview is embedded above, and complete coverage of Bellator 229: “Koreshkov vs. Larkin” resides here at MMAmania.com all week(end) long.

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