Colby Landers looks for another dominate performance at Pyramid 10
November 10, 2018 was a long time coming for Colby Landers. The former Division 1 football player finally got his chance to make his pro MMA debut after completing his amateur career in April of 2016. Opponents didn’t line up to face the JacksonWink product who hadn’t left the first round in either of his amateur appearances. In addition to having been a division one college athlete and having an impressive record, Landers is well-known for being one of UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones’ training partners, which hasn’t helped him in his quest to get fights. Landers thought he’d have more success getting fights as a professional but that wasn’t the case as it took him years to get his first fight.
But he finally did, and he was stoked Josh Pierce accepted the fight. Only to learn in the middle of his training camp that Pierce had to pull out of the fight. Then he was excited to face Mike Cook, who agreed to step up and fight…only to pull out. Thankfully for Landers, Rasheem Jones stepped up and took the fight. The only problem was that Jones is a natural heavyweight while Landers is a light heavyweight. Landers did what he had to do to get a fight.
“It was either not fight at all or fight him at heavyweight.”
Landers won the fight decisively by TKO in the first round and he didn’t feel any ring rust at all and felt like he had great cardio.
“I felt great, I kept up a pretty high-power output, I threw a lot of power punches that fight and I wasn’t getting the slightest bit tired. So, my training, at this altitude here in Albuquerque and my training in general, I felt really good, I felt I could’ve gone three hard five-minute rounds.”
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The fight also tested Landers in a way he has never been tested before, he had to show he had the heart of a champion as Jones cut him early in the fight.
“I had to show that, not to brag or anything but I usually just finish my fights in the first round and they’re pretty easy. I’ve had one boxing match that I took a little damage, but it wasn’t like a cut or anything, I just took a lot of shots, before I switched over to MMA. But yeah, that was by far the most damage I’ve ever taken but I needed to show that to myself and the people who are going to fight me that I’m not easily breakable, so if you hurt me that’s fine, I’m just going to keep going forward and staying in your face, I’m not going to quit. I needed to show some things. You don’t ever want to have to show those things but you know that you need to at some point so you can show you can push through adversity.”
Now that he has his pro debut out of the way, Landers is excited to have another fight lined up on February 9th at Pyramid 10 in Benton, Ar. The matchup is back at his natural weight class of light heavyweight
“The quick turnaround is perfect because you want to keep the momentum going.”
What’s especially intriguing is that Landers is scheduled to fight the person he was originally going to fight for his pro debut, Josh Pierce.
“We were scheduled to fight before, he had some personal issues come up and he had to pull out of the fight, which I never like but I understand things happen and I saw he was looking for a fight coming up in February looking to jump on a card. I saw that he actually commented on a Facebook status he was ready to go and I commented, “Well, I know a guy, we were supposed to fight, let’s run it back and do it this time.” It’s hard for me to find fights and he already signed to fight me once before so I figured I’d try it again. He’s training hard, he’s all in this time, so I think it’s going to happen this time knock on wood.”
“I don’t think he’s ducking me by any means.”
Landers also made sure there was some benefit for him even if his opponent pulls out of the fight.
“They put in a little clause in our contract, if he pulls out this time he’s gotta pay a little bit of money so I think he’s going to be there.”
Landers did most of his training in his home state of Arkansas for his last fight. This time will be different as his whole camp will be done at JacksonWink before heading to Arkansas for his fight. Landers has invested more in himself this camp by scheduling more individual sessions with his coaches but this camp was also unique as he was a part of Jones’ camp for his fight against Alexander Gustaffson. Landers says, working with whom many to be the greatest light heavyweight of all time can be a painful experience, it has also been one that has built up his confidence.
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“It’s always good to get rounds with the best, the thing it helps me with is my confidence a lot more than anything because he’s taken me down and put me in similar positions that Gus was, where he had him and I’ve done a lot better. He don’t just mount me and beat me up like that.”
Though he doesn’t like to talk trash, Landers’ confidence is apparent when he details how his upcoming fight against Pierce will go.
“I’m not a big trash talker, but I speak the truth, what I fell is going to happen. Again no disrespect to him, no disrespect to nobody, I don’t see a human standing there in front of me and taking my shots, I just don’t. Unless I’m fighting Francis Ngannou, I feel I can probably go toe to toe with anybody. He has wins by submission and a loss by submission but he does stand up and his nickname is hands of stone. I’ll be glad to put that to the test, any day. Like I say if he reads this, sorry man, this isn’t me talking trash, I’m just being 100% truthful, I’ve never seen my stool and I don’t plan on it.”
