Jared Vanderaa: Chi Lewis-Parry ‘didn’t want to lose’ at LFA 74, predicts quick finish of Renan Ferreira
Heavyweight prospect Jared Vanderaa discusses his main event bout against Renan Ferreira at LFA 74. The event takes place Aug. 30 at the Riverside Municipal Coliseum in Riverside, Calif. and will air on AXS TV.
“The Mountain” talks about his career, suffering back-to-back losses at the end of 2017 into the beginning of 2018, the impact Joe Stevenson, Dominick Reyes and others have had on his gym and his career, how fatherhood has been amazing but hasn’t changed him too much in his fighting career, why he believes a UFC call is not far away, why he believes he will finish his opponent in under two rounds, being 0-2 in LFA thus far and his excitement to turn that around, and much more.
In addition, Vanderaa talks about how the fight with Ferreira came to be. After a number of different options from various promotions, the 27-year-old was offered a fight with Chi Lewis-Parry, which he immediately accepted. While Vanderaa continuously promoted the bout in regards to selling tickets and packing the house on Aug. 30, he wondered why the fight was never officially announced for the event by the promotion. Less than two weeks ago, Vanderaa was told that Lewis-Parry was out of the fight altogether.
MMA journalist Amy Kaplan tweeted a report recently that Lewis-Parry has been in discussions with the UFC about making his organizational debut in the near future. That certainly seems like a good enough reason to withdraw from a scheduled fight, but Vanderaa has his own inquiries about why he is no longer facing “Chopper” on Aug. 30.
“He just didn’t want to lose,” Vanderaa told MyMMANews.com. “If you ever look at his record, it’s so padded that… I think he realized that if he fought me, I’m an MMA fighter. As much as I love my standup, I can fight on the ground and a majority of my wins come from TKOs on the ground. I have a handful of submissions and a lot of victories on the ground. I think he realized, ‘Hey, he can stand and bang, but he can also take me down’ — which he sucks at. I don’t think he can really do anything if he’s on the ground.
“I come from a wrestling gym, and I have a higher belt in jiu-jitsu. I’d pretty much do whatever I wanted to him on the ground.”
Check out the full interview with heavyweight prospect Jared Vanderaa in the video above.
