About five months ago, as John Salter wrapped up one last workout before flying out to Illinois for a scheduled meeting with Rafael Lovato Jr., his phone started blowing up.

“I pick up my phone and I see all these text messages, like ‘I heard that you’re out of the fight, what’s going on?'” Salter told MMAjunkie. “My first text back was ‘I’m not out of the fight, where did you hear that?’ And then I started figuring out something was going on. Kind of went into panic mode, calling everybody, trying to figure out if it’s true.”

It was true. On April 24, just four days before Bellator 198 was set to take place, Salter found out that an eye issue had caused the State of Illinois Athletic Board to scrap him from what had been widely regarded as a No. 1 middleweight contender fight.

“It was pretty devastating,” Salter said.

Lovato Jr. would go on to fight that night. He got a last-minute opponent in then-retired Gerald Harris, who was making his Bellator debut. As Salter expected, the jiu-jitsu ace was quick to get Harris to where he wanted and score yet another submission win.

In the meantime, Salter watched from the sidelines, in what would prove to be both a frustrating and educational experience.

“It’s one of the things that is kind – it’s hard to watch when you know it should be you,” Salter said. “But, at the same time, stuff happens add he’s got to make a living. He’s got to get out there and fight. (It was) just another chance for me to watch and kind of see what to expect from him.”

Thankfully, that wasn’t wasted knowledge. Salter (15-3 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) ended up getting rebooked with Lovato Jr (8-0 MMA, 4-0 BMMA), whom he meets in the Paramount-televised co-headliner of Friday’s Bellator 205 event, at CenturyLink Arena in Boise, Idaho.

And the issue that first forced Salter out has been dealt with.

“I think when commissions get a little too strict on people and they start making it almost impossible to fight, they forget their livelihood comes from us, fighting,” Salter said. “But anyway, it made me have eye surgery to be able to fight again.”

Salter had PRP surgery about a week after the bout was scheduled to happen. He had to avoid contact training for a couple of weeks, but it only took him a few days to get back to things like drilling and hitting pads. He had no complications and he – and the eyes – are ready to go.

For some people, including Salter’s opponent, the No. 1 contender potential of the bout remains even five months after its original booking. But Salter, himself, has learned to avoid creating that type of expectation. After dominantly winning fights that were touted as title eliminators, against Kendall Grove and Brandon Halsey, he’s “just focused on what’s ahead of me.”

And, after briefly considering another that may be out of the table for now, he’s happy that just so happens to be Lovato Jr.

“I saw that Lovato was over in Europe doing some seminars over there, so at one point I thought, ‘He might be out for a while,’” Salter said. “So I tried the fight with (Lyoto Machida). That didn’t work out. So now, fighting Lovato, I think is the best thing for me right now. I think it’s the best thing for the fans.”

Lovato Jr., too, is happy about the booking. And while he’s prepared for the fight to go anywhere, the highly-accomplished Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace believes fans may very well be in for “maybe the highest-level (grappling) exchange” ever on the Bellator stage.

Salter, on his end thinks that’s a good way of looking at it. A jiu-jitsu black belt, himself, Salter had talked to MMAjunkie about how Lovato Jr.’s ground chops, while obviously unique and commendable, did not intimidate him. And that still stands.

“ I think I’m the first person that he’s fought that’s not afraid to be on the ground with him – that’s something that kind of changes everything,” Salter said. “He’s a guy that you can’t expect to go out there, take him down, pass his guard and submit him. It’s probably not going to happen. But I’m a guy that can take him down, stay on top, I can lay on punches, lay on strikes and make him work down there. I think that’s a big difference from what he’s had to deal with in the past. And I’m a guy who’s not afraid to stand-up and go with him on the feet.

“I’m probably, by far, the most well-rounded person and he’s fought and the only person that he’s fought that can grapple with him. There’s really not anybody else in that 185 division that can go to the ground with him and not get subbed. So I think that’s why this definitely is the most exciting fight for both guys.”

There is, however, another reason why fans should be excited about this one: Between Salter’s and Lovato Jr.’s combined 23 wins, only one – Lovato Jr.’s Bellator 189 meeting with Chris Honeycutt – was decided on the judges’ scorecards. And Lovato Jr., himself, has already made it quite clear that he enters this one as finish-driven as ever.

But, well aware of the type of opponent he has ahead of him, Salter is careful not to place that kind of expectation on himself.

“Especially this one, I think more than anything else, I’ve got to go in with the expectations of ‘This is going to be a three-round, hard-fought fight where both of us might have to be carried out of the cage and I’ve just got to get the win,’” Salter said. “Because if I go in there with a guy like him and I start thinking, ‘OK, I’m going to hurt him, and I’m going to pass his guard and sub him,’ then I’m putting stuff into my mind that’s not necessarily a realistic thing.

“Too many guys, you see them fall down, and people think, ‘OK, I got him.’ And he’s just as dangerous there as anywhere else – if not more dangerous. So this is something that you really have to gameplan well with a guy like him. And my gameplan is not one dimensional. My gameplan is, ‘This happens, I go here.’ But ultimately it’s just a guy you’ve got to be prepared to fight 15 minutes with him, and you’ve got to be prepared to get dragged out of the cage, because I know he’s got that mindset.”

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