SAN JOSE, Calif. – With a heavyweight title shot all but official, [autotag]Linton Vassell[/autotag] gave credit to improvements in his mental game for what he thinks was the biggest win of his career.
Vassell (24-8 MMA, 12-5 BMMA) had some early bumps in the road in his rematch with Valentin Moldavsky (11-3 MMA, 6-2 BMMA) at Bellator 292 this past Saturday at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. But instead of going into panic mode, he stayed calm and rallied for a big knockout win to avenge a past loss.
“It didn’t start the way I expected at all,” Vassell told MMA Junkie at his post-fight news conference. “But like my mind coach said, adversity and game plans, and what can you do when it doesn’t go your way? And I said, ‘Keep calm and get back to work.’ The groundwork didn’t work for me. That’s what usually is my bread and butter. But today, it was the hands. I’m not mad about that at all. Obviously, (I was) wanting to get that revenge back because we’re one apiece now.
“… If this was me, maybe even like six (to) 10 fights ago, I would have panicked. As soon as we got back to our feet, I would’ve done some stupid stuff and probably tried to take him down. (This time), I just composed myself, went back to my hands, and it was funny as I threw, I didn’t even know I’d hurt him until I had my head down and then when I looked up, he was on the floor.”
Vassell’s win over Moldavsky avenged a loss he had when he first moved to heavyweight from light heavyweight, a division in which he lost a title shot to then-champ Ryan Bader in 2017 before he moved up to heavyweight.
But since his move up, he has five straight wins, including four knockouts of Sergei Kharitonov, Ronny Markes, Timothy Johnson, and now Moldavsky. Now he’ll get a chance, Bellator president Scott Coker confirmed, to take Bader’s heavyweight title later this year.
Regardless of when the Bader rematch happens, Vassell said the win over Moldavsky was the biggest of his career so far.
“I’m going to say yes – one, because of the way I did it, and two, it was a very special fight, should I say, because it was a No. 1 contender and it was a rematch,” Vassell said. “So I had those two things on my mind. But to be honest, it wasn’t that that was playing my mind. It was just like, ‘I can’t lose again to him,’ beause I’m 39 now, so it’s not like I’ll get him next time. Probably more like, ‘I won’t get you next time and I won’t fight for the belt’ if I had lost. It was just icing on the cake to get the win, and winning the way I did, as well.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 292.