Henry Corrales (blue) defeats Aaron Pico (red) via round one knockout during Bellator 214 at the Forum in Inglewood, CA., Saturday, Jan 26, 2019. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Henry Corrales: “I have a lot of interest in fighting only the toughest guys”
Henry Corrales takes on Juan Archuleta at Bellator 238. The event emanates from The Forum in Inglewood, California. Both men are coming off losses which resulted in them being ousted from the featherweight world grand prix. Archuleta lost in his title bid against dual division champion (featherweight and lightweight) Pitbull while Corrales took a decision defeat to Darrion Caldwell. Both men have over twenty pro bouts a piece, both have crowd-pleasing fighting styles, and are both looking to rebound in a big way.
Bellator 238
Corrales has been digging the training dynamic over at Fight Ready leading into this fight. Corrales said, “Eddie Cha is doing a really good job on pad work. And also Santino Defranco, he’s just been nominated for coach of the year.”
Though Corrales had a multi-fight win streak snapped by Caldwell, Henry Corrales had some great takeaways from that night. Corrales stated, “I was a little too patient and confident. The fact that I was going to catch him slipping sooner or later with some big shots. That just never happened. He did a great job of avoiding any of that type of conflict. My hat’s off to him. That was a great experience, man.”
The work Henry Corrales has been putting in with Neuroforce has been a relatively new addition to his prep. Corrales quipped, “We started working before the last fight with Caldwell. Just picked up where we left off. We had such a great camp last camp and we just kept the ball rolling.” Corrales continued, “They take care of everything for me from my sleep, my recovery stuff, nutrition. They’ve got me with some organic meal-prep that counts all of my macros and does all of this really cool stuff. Not that it makes things easier, it just makes things way more optimal.”
Henry Corrales
Though both are coming off of losses in the grand prix, there has been some speculation about this fight being an alternate bout. Corrales quipped, “They haven’t mentioned anything. I’ve done a couple of interviews and they’ve brought it up but other than that I haven’t heard anything about it.”
Juan Archuleta held KOTC gold like Corrales and Archuleta has proven himself to be a top-level fighter at bantamweight and featherweight. Corrales said, “I have a lot of interest in fighting only the toughest guys. I’m pretty grateful for that opportunity. I just want to get in there and test myself against the best of the best that Bellator has to offer.”
Corrales continued, “I have 21 fights. He has 22 or 4 something like that. I don’t see how you’re not going to see anything different from us. all feelings aside. We’re pretty much going to do the same thing. I’m going to be in there, well-conditioned looking for some big shots. This guy’s going to be shooting, throwing bombs, more of the same. That’s how I look at it. My whole thing is taking things to the next level.”
Bellator is back at The Forum and Corrales has had several notable career moments there. Win, loss, or draw there are post-fight festivities on the agenda. Corrales stated, “It’s pretty cool. It doesn’t get old, you know? I definitely would like to go somewhere else and fight too. I’m not going to turn down to fight in front of some family and friends. Get to hang out with them after.”
