Bellator's Chris Lozano on fight with Karl Amoussou: 'Somebody's getting [expletive] up'
Another fight, and another one on Twitter.
Bellator 63's Chris Lozano isn't pleased with what his upcoming opponent Karl Amoussou has written on the social media giant, even though it's hard to tell at a quick glance what exactly the Frenchman said –half his Tweets are in his native tongue.
Maybe Lozano was an exchange student or has a translator at hand to read Amoussou's online insults. Whatever the case, he's fired up.
Bellator 63 takes place tomorrow at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. Lozano (9-2 MMA, 2-2 BFC) vs. Amoussou (13-4-2 MMA, 1-1 BFC) serves as one of four opening-round fights in the promotion's season-six welterweight tournament on the event's main card, which airs live on MTV2. Preliminary-card fights stream live on Spike.com.
"Karl was just on Twitter talking about he's going to knock me out," Lozano said. "He's just going to make it harder on himself talking that [expletive]. I'm hoping that he's underestimating me. I hope he's thinking he's fighting the same dude that fought Douglas Lima recently."
That dude was knocked out in the semifinals of the Bellator season-five tournament by the dude who won the whole thing. The only other dude to stop Lozano is Lyman Good, the promotion's first welterweight champion, and it was by decision.
This is where underestimation becomes a valuable asset, and ego sticks its head out.
"I hope Karl does have that kind of confidence coming into this fight," Lozano said. "Honestly, I don't want to fight anybody that doesn't think they can beat me."
And Lozano probably doesn't want to go into any fight where he doesn't feel better than his opponent. Thankfully, that's the case here.
"I think my hands are better than Karl and I think I'm a much smarter fighter," he said. "At the same time, I also think my wrestling's better than his and I think my ground game is better. I know he's got several wins by submission, but I haven't been really impressed from what I've seen from him on the ground.
"I think Karl Amoussou is a tough guy, but that's about it. I wasn't blown away from what I've seen from him, but he's definitely no slouch. Honestly, I feel like I've fought way better fighters already in my career."
What's more, Lozano feels like he's ironed out some of the kinks in his game that previously caused setbacks. It didn't hurt that he had Greg Jackson in his corner.
"We broke down a lot of old bad habits I had, and I've also been able to pick up a lot of good habits," Lozano said. "I've learned a lot of new things down [at Jackson-Winkeljohn's MMA academy], so there's going to be a lot of different things about my style that has changed.
"You're always going to be who you are but coming down to Jackson's has really helped my add some new elements to my game, and I'm a much better fighter because of it."
Of course, Lozano has to prove that. The last time out, he ended up staring at the lights. But he's convinced that won't be the case tomorrow.
Amoussou may disagree, but that's all the better in his mind.
"I definitely don't see this fight going three rounds," Lozano said. "I'm coming into this tournament to finish these dudes. To be honest, I see me knocking Karl out. I'm trying to get in and out of there as soon as possible. With his style and my style, somebody is going to get [expletive] up."
