Modestas Bukauskas talks Jon Jones adding extra motivation for Cage Warriors title win
The brand new Cage Warriors light heavyweight champion Modestas Bukauskas discusses capturing that coveted title at CW 106: Night of Champions last month. Bukauskas earned the 205-pound title with a fourth round TKO win over Marthin Hamlet Nielsen.
There were an incredible six title fights on the card, which aired on UFC Fight Pass in the United States.
Modestas discusses what it feels like to be a Cage Warriors champion, being part of that historic event, why it’s so important to always listen to your father, how important visualization has become in his career, what it felt like to become champion after a grueling fight, his belief that he could compete in the UFC, when he would like to return and much more.
The new Cage Warriors champ also discussed meeting and training with Jon Jones a few years back and how that relationship came full circle prior to his championship opportunity.
“Funny enough, I actually met Jon Jones at The Body Power Expo (in Birmingham back in May), which was about seven weeks before the fight,” Bukauskas told MyMMANews.com. “I had sparred with him, previously, when I was 22 — about three years ago — and when I came up to him and introduced myself, he already knew me straight away. I didn’t even really need to properly introduce myself. It was amazing to be able to talk to him again. Just seeing that he’s a world champion, and seeing him again, gave me extra motivation.
“I actually handed him a sheet of paper that had a couple of pictures of me and him in it, and a picture of the Cage Warriors belt. He signed it, and I had written underneath that I was going to win by TKO — not in the fourth round — but on the sheet of paper, I said I would win by TKO. There were small things I was ingraining as time went on closer to the fight, of course in my preparations for the fight as well, that when it finally did happen, it felt incredibly crazy. It felt was like I was dreaming. I had been visualizing it in my head and to have it happen, come to fruition, was really quite weird. It was quite shocking.”
Modestas goes on to explain how he tagged the UFC light heavyweight champion in an Instagram post talking about the win, which lead to Jones congratulating his fellow light heavyweight championship colleague.
Listen to the full interview in the video link above with the new Cage Warriors light heavyweight champion, Modestas Bukauskas.
