Sabah Homasi on Andrey Koreshkov clash at Bellator 264
Sabah Homasi takes on Andrey Koreshkov at Bellator 264 on Friday, August 13th. A welterweight affair that transpires at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, and will be broadcast on Showtime.
I spoke with The Sleek Sheik ahead of this high stakes bout at 170 lbs. Excerpts from our conversation can be found below.
Sabah Homasi
Being nominated for the 13th annual Fighters Only MMA awards show for that last Paul Daley fight
“That’s pretty cool, man. I was pretty excited to see that. I mean, it was a very entertaining fight.”
Sabah Homasi being a Paul Daley fan since the age of 18 and the possibility of a rematch
“It was great. It was an honor to share the cage with him. I’ve been watching him from a young age because of how exciting he was. Just knocking people out. I loved it. To get to fight that guy that I was watching from a young age, was a whole lot of fun. But I’m pretty sure we’ll get to do it again. I’m just focusing on this fight right now. And we’ll see what Bellator has in store afterward.”
Sabah Homasi versus Andrey Koreshkov
Thoughts on being offered this matchup with a former divisional champion in Andrey Koreshkov
“It was a great feeling. Former champion, this is perfect to show what I’m capable of doing. Showing my skillset. I know he’s a dangerous fighter. Great striker. Very quick with his punches and his kicks. Especially his spinning kicks. So I just got to be on my A-game and see everything coming my way. Shut everything down, you know?”
Koreshkov tape study at American Top Team
“Yeah, me and Mike Brown. We sat down and watched it, broke it down. He’s been using his wrestling a lot in his last couple of fights. This is MMA, we’re ready for everything. We’re ready for whatever he tries to throw at us. This is what the training is for. You just train what you got to do in a fight. Fight night comes and you’ve just got to do it.”
Bellator MMA
His journey working with American Top Team since about 2008
“Absolutely. My teammates and coaches, Dan Lambert, I mean, they’ve all just made me into the person I am today. And I’m super grateful for my team. I started my career there. And I’m going to finish it there. You know, I don’t plan on ever leaving that place. That’s family to me. But it’s crazy to see how far I’ve come from a young age to seeing where I’m at today. And I’m just grateful for the opportunity that I got over there.”
Sabah Homasi competing with Bellator MMA on and off since June 2010 on their 21st event
“Obviously, you know, when you’re starting off, you might be green in the sport. But as time goes on, it’s impossible not to get better if you keep working at something, right? So over the years, just kept on training, kept on working. Doesn’t matter if I got knocked down, I’d get back up to my feet and I get back to work. It’s part of the game. Just because I fail one time or twice or three times. How many times do people fail? People fail hundreds of times, 1000s of times before they actually put everything together and then shine bright. So that’s where I’m at right now.”
“Back in the beginning of my career, I had a hard time getting fights. So any fights that came my way I just took it. A few people say that I kind of grew up in the cage. Fighting the people that I’ve fought. I say this over and over again, if you lose, you go back and you watch it. You look at the mistakes you’ve made. Then you correct them. If you win, you do the same thing. Even a win, I look back on my wins and I look back and I’m like, okay, I could have done this differently. Or I should have done this.”
Bellator 264
Sabah Homasi continued, “I just always look at wins and losses. It’s a learning lesson. And that’s the same thing in the gym. You know, if you get caught in a submission. Or if something happens and you get hit with something. Okay, what did I do to get hit with this? Or what did I do to get caught in this submission? You don’t do it again (laughs).”
The myriad of great martial artists to work with at ATT and health being most important
“Absolutely. Jorge Masvidal, Dustin (Poirier), Pitbull (Thiago Alves), Mike Brown, Roman Faraldo, he is also a welterweight fighter for Bellator. And I appreciate him so much, because he had to pull out of his last fight because his daughter was being born. And then everything that he dealt with afterward, man, it’s just crazy to think about.”
“Everyone was praying for his daughter making sure that she was going to pull out of the phase that she was in. She did, so I’m just happy that she’s okay. The guy’s awesome, dude. He literally comes up from Key West and helps me train. So I’m just thankful and grateful for the people that I have around me.”
Flying knees and broken hands
Breaking his hand in the first round of the Bobby Voelker fight and then getting a flying knee stoppage early on in the second round
“Man, you know, what was crazy is I broke it like the first hook I threw. In the first round, it was like 30 seconds to a minute in the first round. When I broke my hand, I didn’t realize. I felt it but I didn’t think anything of it because obviously adrenaline is in there. But when I kept on throwing it, I can’t even make this up, man, I was feeling my hand crunch. And it was so painful.”
“If I threw a jab or if anything connected, even if he blocked and I hit his forearms, I felt everything in my hand. I felt like the bones were just crumbling. It was crazy. But then obviously I’m going to continue to fight. I’m going to continue to throw it. I don’t give a shit if it’s broken or not. I’m going to squeeze that brick and throw it. So I mean, that’s just my mentality. If I’m in there fighting, I’m fighting.”
