Steve Mowry’s Bellator 242 bout with Rudy Schaffroth, “Still makes sense”
Rudy Schaffroth’s name kept coming up.
Scheduled to fight once before, Steve Mowry will finally meet Schaffroth at Bellator 242 in Uncasville, CT this Friday, June 24. Even during a time of uncertainty with the COVID-19 pandemic, the matchup with Schaffroth came as little surprise to Mowry.
“It was a matchup that made sense before and it’s a matchup that still makes sense,” Mowry said. “I didn’t really have a name or face in mind, but as soon as talks of this started again, the first name that came up was Rudy.”
Mowry expects the entire heavyweight division to fight each other eventually, which is why a fight with Schaffroth is all the more logical. Both fighters hold seven professional bouts with a combined record of 13-1.
Unbeaten at 7-0, Mowry defeated Ben Moa, Darion Abbey and Gokhan Saricam inside the Bellator cage. Schaffroth is also three fights into his Bellator career, but is coming off his first career defeat. He suffered a second-round submission win against Tyrell Fortune at Bellator 225 this past August.
“Rudy is tough as nails. He’s a dangerous athlete, he’s powerful and he’s strong. Skill wise, I feel like I am better than he is,” Mowry said. “That’s not a discredit to his ability, I just feel like I’m better.”
On hold
A skin infection kept Mowry out of the two’s first scheduled bout at Bellator 239 on Feb. 21. Mowry offered the promotion to fight Schaffroth on a future card.
Bellator instructed Mowry to wait it out, then the coronavirus pandemic hit.
Both fighters are yet to go all three rounds with every victory coming by finish. Mowry will look to hand Schaffroth another defeat with five submission wins to his name.
The fight comes later than expected, but this time is as good as any for Steve Mowry.
“I would have been ready to fight whenever throughout this whole thing. I was expecting to fight like a month ago, but now here we are fighting, I’m glad I had all this extra time,” Mowry said. “You have to be silly to watch tape of Rudy and not think he’s a tough cat. I’m looking forward to going in there and showing out.”
