Photo credit to Phil Lambert. BKFC
Lorenzo Hunt “I Will Smash Mike Richman’s Mouth In”
Lorenzo Hunt tests skills with Mike Richman at BKFC KnuckleMania 3 on February 17th. This is a light heavyweight championship unification bout and will serve as the main event fight.
Hunt appeared on Bowks Talking Bouts to talk about his bad blood-filled headliner at the promotion’s big tentpole event, the machinations of this matchup, and more. Excerpts from our chat are below.
Lorenzo Hunt
The origins of all this bad blood with Mike Richman from Lorenzo Hunt’s perspective
“From my vantage point, I mean I never had any problem or any beef or any even acknowledgment of Mike Richman. We weren’t even in the same weight class. I’ve been on a tear throughout the BKFC and Mike Richman wasn’t even on my radar because he fought at 175. His wins came at 175. The only person he fought at 185 was (Isaac) Doolittle. He mentioned me during an interview and he posted a post that said Mike Richman says he’ll fight anybody.”
“So anyway, yeah, Mike Richman did an interview with Mike and Mish. They made a big stink about him wanting to fight and being owed a fight. Saying he would fight anyone even Lorenzo Hunt since everyone is afraid of him. Honestly, I just think the fact that he opened his mouth and created fanfare, the people wanted to see it. Now he has to literally eat his words you know. I am who I am, I’m the double world champ. I fought hard for the 85 belt, I fought even harder for the 205 belt.”
“Mike Richman should not be in there with me. But he’s one of those people, either he’s incredibly brave or he’s incredibly stupid. Either which way, it doesn’t matter because there’s a lot of brave people that get hurt and there’s a lot of stupid people that get hurt. So I’m just going to show up and do my job and defend my title.”
BKFC KnuckleMania 3
Richman’s best stylistic attributes in bare-knuckle boxing and Hunt’s thoughts on his overall resume
“The strongest thing about Mike Richman is his stubbornness. Mike Richman is a very stubborn, bullheaded fighter and he doesn’t give up. He’s not one to give up. So I’m not expecting him to go out there and lay down. I did see his fights before, I’m not impressed. I’m not hard to impress, I’m just not impressed. Don’t believe that the level of competition that he fought was even close to my caliber. By that I mean that no one that he’s fought I would have had a problem with. Marcel Stamps, (Isaac) Doolittle, those guys would have been light work for me.”
“Even Dakota Cochrane. Dakota Cochrane, there’s a reason we never fought. There’s a reason these people didn’t fight me, they fought him (laughs). I’m not impressed by his record because the people he beat couldn’t have held a candle in the ring to me. Now ask me the same thing about Mike Richman. Could he have beat Hector Lombard, could he have beat Joe Riggs, could he have beat Quentin Henry, I don’t think so.”
“So I just don’t think it compares. It doesn’t matter if his record was 10-0. It’s like I said, I’m nine and one. I don’t believe that it would even be a close comparison.”
BKFC
Richman perceiving himself as the lineal champion at light heavyweight and Hunt’s thoughts on ‘The Marine’ continually saying that ‘The Juggernaut’ has never made the 185 pound limit
“I believe that sometimes people create fallacies in their mind that put them in position to get hurt. Kind of like when you fill out an application for a forklift operator but you don’t have the qualifications. Then they put you in a forklift and then you get hurt. Mike Richman thinks that I’ve never made the 185 weight limit. He thinks that I’m not the champ because I’ve never made 185. But I’ve always made my contracted weights. I don’t fight what the fans think I should fight. Don’t do what the fans think should be done. I do what’s in my contract.”
“So whatever the weight is and whatever the agreed upon weight is between the BKFC and the boxing commission and the person, that’s what we fight at. Now how can you fault me for signing a contract that says you guys fight at such and such weight for the 185 title? That has nothing to do with me. I will not have a problem making 185 as this contract says. I will smash Mike Richman’s mouth in and then he’ll disappear like the rest of the people who had weird excuses for fighting me. Thinking that that would give them an edge.”
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship
Hunt continued, “He thinks that I won’t make weight and that will give him an edge and he’s going to carry that into this fight. He’s going to get beat up. It’s a very bad idea to make logical leaps so that things will go in your favour in your imagination. It’s a lot easier to just be honest. Then he would have probably gone to 75 and fought for the 175 title.”
“Fought (Francesco) Ricchi for the 175 title just like Dave Mundell did. Dave Mundell is a very smart person. He says there’s no way in hell I’m fighting Lorenzo Hunt for the 185 title. I’m about to go to 175. He’s so much smarter than Mike Richman.”
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