Photo credit to Lost Coast Outpost
Cass Bell on Josh Hill “Not as Tough as (Raufeon) Stots”
Cass Bell tests skills with Josh Hill at Bellator 292 on March 10th.
Bell once again appeared on Bowks Talking Bouts to touch on the backstory for this bantamweight bout, the Bellator MMA 135 lb landscape overall, plus so much more. Excerpts from our chat are below.
The bantamweight backstory between Josh Hill and Bell leading into this showdown
“I thought he called me out on my first loss. When I first lost, I’m pretty sure he called me out on my first loss. I actually talked to Hill about it because I was actually trying to talk to him about going 140 for this fight. Just because I didn’t want to be focused on my weight cut so much and all this stuff but I’ll get back to that in a second. But yeah, I even told him like you called me out on my loss. He’s like no, I called you out when you were 5-0. We were in the top ten and that’s when I called you out. I was like ah, I don’t think so.”
Cass Bell
“I remember you called me out on my first loss because nobody called me out when I was winning. Everybody was kind of scared or whatever. I don’t know, they just didn’t want to call me out at all. But as soon as I lost that’s when, which to me it’s kind of sad, but that’s when everybody kind of started calling me out. Like oh, I’ll fight Cass. It’s like why do you want to fight somebody that just lost? Like for me, I don’t believe in that. For me, I always want to fight the next best thing of whatever level I’m at.”
“If I have over twenty-something fights, I know I’m not calling out somebody that’s 5-2 or 5-1. Even 5-0, I still wouldn’t even think about calling them out. It’s like ok let’s wait until they get at least ten-something fights or if we’re fighting for the title or something like that. I would understand if the promotion made it. But for me, I don’t know, I’d rather call out the bigger, better, tougher guys than somebody that’s below me kind of thing. That’s how I think with it.”
“With Josh, he was saying that he called me out after my Hawaii fight. But like I said, I went down his Instagram and I could see when he called me out on the date. It was right after my (Raufeon) Stots loss. Maybe he called me out before and I don’t remember. But honestly I don’t think he did. I think he called me out after my loss. Which for me, shows me a lot about who I’m fighting and stuff.”
Bellator 292
Bell’s overall assessment of Hill’s combative proclivities and resume as a fighter
“I know Josh Hill is tough. He’s going to be one of my toughest fights. Not as tough as Stots but I can tell he’s up there on that high level being a high-level fighter. But I’ve been doing my research on Hill and stuff. I see lately, he’s been kind of fighting guys that kind of lose. If they’re on a loss then he kind of fights them after they’re on a loss. (I’m) going down the Tapology list that I see. Just for me like I said, I would never call out; if I had twenty or fifteen fights, I still wouldn’t call out somebody that has like five, six, or seven fights as a professional. That’s just me.”
“So when he did call me out, I was actually kind of stoked. I’m like wow, this is a good challenge, going to be a tough fight. A really tough fight for me but that’s what I want. I want tough fights. I took on Stots, I fought (Jornel) Lugo. Who I think was only 5-0 at the time but I mean shoot, he was on a whole ‘nother level also. Then I got to fight (Jared) Scoggins which was cool. Which was a good test, get me back in there. A lot of guys told me, hey you should take an easy fight.”
Bellator MMA
“Even my son mentioned that to me. ‘Why are you taking such a hard fight? You should take an easier fight’. But I’m like that’s not me. I like to be challenged. Don’t go around here and pick my fights. If Bellator tells me hey you want to fight this guy? Pretty much I say yes every single time. There’s only been one time that I said no and that was because we had some family stuff going on. I wouldn’t say no to anybody; just because I had to be there for my family at that time.”
“But I’m glad that everything’s back to normal pretty much and everybody’s good. So I’m ready to fight whomever, whoever. So Josh Hill called me out. I’m like alright, sweet let’s get it on. Let’s do this. So I’m super excited, especially for the challenge. He’s up there. I think he’s twenty-something and five or so. So he has a great record, great experience. He trains with some good teams, good guys. I know he’s over sometimes in Sacramento; gets to train with Urijah Faber and all of his guys out there. So it’s going to be a good challenge for me.”
