Photo credit to Nick Vespe/ BKFC
Mike Richman Plans to “Make It a Dog Fight” vs Lorenzo Hunt
Mike Richman clashes with Lorenzo Hunt in a light heavyweight title unification match that headlines BKFC KnuckleMania 3 on February 17th.
Richman was a guest on Bowks Talking Bouts once again and touched on the origins of all the bad blood in this Hunt headliner, his championship options in multiple weight categories, plus so much more. Excerpts from our chat are below.
The origins of this intense rivalry that exists with Lorenzo Hunt from Richman’s perspective
“You know what, I can’t even put a specific date on it honestly. You know, it’s just been so much back and forth, right. It definitely happened before our little altercation, our little shoving altercation down in Hollywood, Florida. Probably started building up maybe a month before that. To when he was starting to post online that everyone’s afraid to fight him; this, this, and that. Then that’s when I just kind of was like you know what fuck that dude, man. I’ll come up and fight you. Don’t be going around here and acting like people ain’t coming for you.”
“To think that is just so foolish and I just didn’t respect that. I think most of what I didn’t respect about him is his persona, his gimmick. It just annoys me. I think if you saw Lorenzo (Hunt) when he first started in BKFC, he kinda came across as a nice, humble dude; one of those things. Somewhere along the line, it switched to him to play this character and I just don’t respect that.”
Mike Richman
Having title aspirations in other weight categories and what ideally lies ahead for Richman after this upcoming title unification bout
“That is a great question. I don’t know. I don’t see myself staying; fighting at 185 very long. After I beat Lorenzo (Hunt), I’m not sure if I would even fight one more time. Maybe I’ll defend it one more time. But in my mind, I’m defending the 185-pound belt right now. The problem that I have with all of this and this comes from a Bare Knuckle media standpoint. This comes from the BKFC promotion, this comes from this fanbase. All you guys have enabled this character, you have. This is the one fuckin’ goddamn combat sport.”
“If this was MMA, if this was the UFC, if this was boxing. High-level fucking professional boxing, you guys would be telling this fucking guy that guess what, man? You’ve never made the title weight for your fight, not once. Not once, (Joe) Riggs, 195. (Hector) Lombard was around 190 something. You’ve never actually made the title weight to win the 185-pound belt but somewhere along the line, everyone here keeps fucking enabling this guy. I really have a fucking problem with that. So in my mind, I am the 185-pound champion.”
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Richman continued, “I don’t give a fuck what else anyone has to say. So in my eyes, I’m defending it against Lorenzo (Hunt) right now. If he can even make it this time which he probably won’t. Then after that, I’d probably tend to go down to ’75 and ’65, yeah.”
“None of you guys call him out… None of you fucking media people and I don’t mean to come at you personally, Dylan. But none of you guys, the promotion, nobody does. No one says hey, Lorenzo. You are delusional, buddy. This is not how the real world works. This is not how combat sports works… I’ll guarantee you Austin Trout has never won a world title fucking weighing ten pounds heavier than the title belt that he carries… I’m sure Diego Sanchez when he was trying to fight for a title at ’55 (never) got to fuckin’ weigh in at ’65.”
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Thoughts on Hunt’s stylistic proclivities and Richman’s feelings on the overall pedigree of the dual division champion/ number two ranked pound-for-pound BKFC combatant
“I’m not trying to tear down his abilities. Do I think he’s the 195-pound champion? Yeah… He beat Quentin Henry, I’ll give him that. The attributes that he carries are he’s still, at his age, he’s older than me. I want to say he’s 40. 39 or 40 and I’m 37. At his age, he still carries a lot of that athleticism. He still carries a lot of that explosion. A very A to B line striker. He throws off angle jabs, he doesn’t throw a traditional jab. Throws that weird kind of a slouchy angle, downward jab. But his explosion, his quick first step into his little running combinations.”
“That can be deadly if you don’t know how to stop it in its tracks. Counter it, get off the angle, counter back. If you let him fight his pace of a fight, it’ll just be that. It’ll be explosion, combination, reset. Explosion, combination, reset. Then he’s looking to clip you on one of those combinations. Then when you try to engage him, he has good solid head movement. So you’ve got to press this dude. You’ve got to press him, you’ve got to put him on his heels. You’ve got to make it a dog fight and that’s what the fuck I plan on doing.”
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