Bellator 201 prelims are chalk full of tomorrow’s stars – Jordan Young could be brightest
Jordan Young speaks with MyMMANews
Before Jeff Foxworthy’s rise to fame and fortune hosting family-oriented gameshows like ‘Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?’ he was a stand-up comic. Undoubtably his most successful bit was ‘You might be a redneck…if.’ The MMA equivalent to Foxworthy’s most prominent work = ‘You might be a diehard if… you sit through 13 fights or roughly five hours of fights every time there’s an event.’
All jokes aside.
Bellator 201 takes place this Friday and although the main card boasts a championship fight, the prelims are chalk-full of tomorrow’s contenders. Joey Davis, Ed Ruth, and Tyrell Fortune have all garnered much interest as prospects, all three will be predominately featured on the prelims.
However, 23-year-old fighter Jordan Young is also competing on that night, and he may have something to say about that.
“I’m interested to see when the pay is disclosed,” Young told MyMMANews.com. “I bet I’m the highest paid fighter out of all that talent on the prelims.”
Those are some mighty strong words coming from the ATT trained fighter, but in this day and age of trash-talking, Young is something of an anomaly, he can actually back up his words.
“I’ve been at American Top Team for two years now,” explained Young.
“I feel like it’s all starting to come together and it’s going to pay off on fight night.”
For Young, Bellator 201 will be the first time these former middleweight tips the scales at light heavyweight. A move he believes is long overdue. “205 feels great,” Young gregarious exclaimed!
“It’s amazing that I made 185, and it’s crazy to think that at 18 [years old] I was fighting at 170lbs.” Young continued, “Now that I’ve grown into my size a little more, I think it’s obvious that I really didn’t have a choice but to move up.”
Standing at 6’4″, Jordan Young will be taller than the majority of his opponents at light heavyweight, yet another reminded how middleweight wasn’t feasible for this Iowa native.
“It’s definitely been a change of pace,” Young said about his new weight class.
“I missed weight twice at 185, I was struggling to make the weight. Then I had a catchweight fight, but my body was talking to me, so I listened to it, and I feel better for it now.”
Bellator 201 features a mix of established fighters and an impressive roster of up-and-coming talent. It remains to be seen if ATT’s Young can become the star Scott Coker and company believes he can be. In the meantime, the brash 23-year-old left me some words to live by.
“You have to look like money to perform and make the money”
Bellator 201: MacFarlane vs Lara airs live Friday, June 29th 9/8c on Paramount Network. Prelims 7/6c available for free on the Bellator app.
