Last Saturday night, at Bellator 106, a slew of underdogs took titles from the favored fighters. Eddie Alvarez defeated Michael Chandler, Emanuel Newton defeated King Mo (again), and Daniel Straus defeated Pat Curran. Each one of those fights were rematches and title fights. Straus, the new Bellator Featherweight champion, is now on a 6 fight win streak after defeating Curran on Saturday night. I recently spoke with Straus regarding his championship victory, the illegal knee from Pat, and much more.

Being the new Featherweight Champion

It feels great. It is different, I will tell you that much. It is a big accomplishment. Not only for me, but for the camp I came out of and the camp I am training with now. The coaches I have worked with and the training partners I have sparred with helped me get where I am now. It is a huge accomplishment.

Who is next for you?

Frodo Khasbulaev because he is the next in line. After that, it really doesn’t matter to me. Justin Wilcox and I are from the same area I believe. I think he wrestled in Cincinnati somewhere. I would obviously love to get back at Pitbull too. Every last one of those guys is talented and well deserving of the title shot. I just want to fight the best guys. Hopefully I can back in there against Frodo in 3 or 4 months. I think I have a huge advantage over him. He is a very tough fighter, and I have kept my eye on him. I just think I have the height, the weight, and the advantage in a couple other areas as well. You can’t count him out because he is small though. Maybe he will be quicker then me or maybe he will be a better wrestler, who knows? I’ll tell you one thing, I want to finish that fight.

Any injuries stemming from the fight?

No lingering injuries. I do have some bumps and bruises, of course. I have a black eye, which is the first black eye I have ever gotten in my life. I have had 26 professional fights, and in my first fight I got cut over my eye and got 4 or 5 stitches. Since then, I haven’t had so much as a busted lip in a fight. This time it was different, Pat beat the s**t out of me. It wasn’t horrible, but he messed up my eye and my legs are all hurting. Overall though, no real injuries.

His thoughts on his performance

I am happy with my performance, but not much. There is a lot that needs to be fixed. I felt like I was lunging too much. The gameplan was to stay on the feet and work in and out. I was only supposed to take it to the ground when necessary or later on in the fight. I wasn’t happy with how I reacted when I felt in trouble. If I felt like I was in trouble I immediately went in for the takedown. I didn’t really stick to the gameplan as much as I wanted to. I was glad to get the win, but I still need a lot of work.

Did you think you had won the fight when the final bell rang?

Everytime I fight, I always think I win, but you never know with the judges. I thought I had the fight in the bag. I felt like I won round 1, and round 2 was close. I would probably give it to him because he was the champ. It wasn’t like he beat me up, but he was the champ, and you have to beat the champ to get the round. Round 3, I thought I won and they also took the point, but I thought I was winning that round regardless. 4 and 5 I thought I took it. I thought I won 4 out of 5 rounds.

The illegal knee

Originally when he hit me, I thought he knocked me out. I thought he KO’ed me with a punch or elbow, or something. I was really upset thinking to myself ‘I can’t believe I just lost to this guy again by KO’. I was so disappointed. When I was coming to, the ref was telling me to stand in that corner and I was confused as to why I had to stay in the corner, I thought the fight was over. That is when they were explaining to me that it was an illegal knee. From then on, I was ready to kick his ass.

Do you think it is safe that the fight was not stopped even though you may have been knocked out?

I do. You have to understand that we fighters know what we are getting into when we sign up for this sport. I know the health issues and the risks, but if it was that bad, we would not be doing this sport. People will have their own opinions, but at the same time those are the people that are not paying our bills. If I can survive for 15 more minutes, and possibly win this fight, and be able to provide and pay bills, that is what I want to do. I don’t want a fight to end, and I lose the fight because the ref thought I was out, or could have been out, or fell too many times, or whatever reason. That means I will miss opportunities for my family and for myself. This is a sport, but this is our job as well. We wouldn’t get into this if it wasn’t what we wanted to do. We sign waivers before hand and understand the risk we take. I am not playing patty cake in there, were kicking and kneeing people. Before a fight, a ref asks you if you have any questions or comments. I always tell them ‘Do not stop my fight unless I am knocked completely unconscious or dead in there’. If I am still moving there is a chance for me to fight and to win. If there is even the slightest chance for me to win, that’s all I need.

Do you think Pat lost his groove after the illegal knee, or did you just pick up the pressure?

I would say it was a little bit of both. I will definitely take the credit because I was in his face and I was not going to back down. With that being said, Pat is a humble dude, definitely not a dirty fighter, and I don’t think he threw the knee on purpose. It made me just want to kick his ass more. I think the knee threw him off a bit, but to me I think it was my pressure that did it. I definitely wanted to show to everyone after the knee that I wasn’t scared of being hit or losing the fight. I was there to win.

Any doubts in your mind due to the TKO loss you had to him before?

That can happen, but it didn’t for me. I have a tough head and a really hard chin. Pat TKO’ed me, and that’s what it was, it was not a KO. I didn’t even have a boxing coach before that fight. I was reaching out for him when he hit me. I don’t care how tough you are, if you take a clean shot to your chin like that you are going to go down. That is just physics. I didn’t worry about it and I wasn’t thinking about it. My mind was focused on winning the belt and not on the first fight.

Fighting Pat Curran again

Down the line I want to. Pat is a champ, and he was the champ for a reason. He is a tough guy and he will get back to the top. I expect to be here when he gets back to the top. I can’t wait for the trilogy fight.