This Saturday night a fight between Micah Brakefield and Adam Santos will headline the Battlefield Fight League 11: Payback Mixed Martial Arts event at the Vogue Theatre in downtown Vancouver.
The rivalry between Micah Brakefield and Adam Santos was officially kicked off when Brakefeild stated that “at West Coast BJJ we do real Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, and we take it seriously.” This statement was seen by Santos as an insult towards the Morganti Jiu Jitsu that he practices. With the controversy already ignited Brakefield told the MMA Madhouse radio show that he is “so far inside Santos head, [he] should be paying him rent.” Brakefield then stated, “I have angered a giant, and he wants to knock my head off” speaking of the much larger Santos.
Brakefield, the current Battlefield Fight League (BFL) Middleweight Amateur Champion, actually took the heavyweight bout with the 240 lbs. Santos on two weeks notice because it was a fight that “stylistically [he] thought he could win and [he was] willing to take the bet.” With all this in mind I sat down with the former Douglas College wrestling product to see how he felt about the mind games leading up to his Saturday night bout with Santos.
JM: What was the fallout from you making fun of Morganti Jiu Jitsu on the [Battlefield 11] preview Video?
MB: Man, I barely even made fun of it all I said was he’s a black belt in Morganti Jiu Jitsu, at West Coast we train real Brazillian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ). Morganti Jiu Jitsu is an offshoot of BJJ so really it was offense taken out of nothing because it is an offshoot and we train real BJJ.
JM: How has training with the SFU wrestling program helped your MMA game?
MB: Oh big time, the room up at SFU is just incredible, Douglas [College] trains there too and the national team trains there. It’s twice a day, every day, as hard as you can go. It’s the hardest part of an MMA camp.
JM: Would you say the wrestling part of camp is harder than the BJJ part in terms of physical exertion?
MB: No question, wrestling is the most tiring part of MMA it’s like a full body sprint, a full body resistance sprint.
JM: Where did your nickname “The Bully” come from? Were you ever a bully?
MB: No we were just joking around. Me doing MMA is kind of funny because I am always just smiling and joking around and “The Bully” had the alliteration with Brakefield, it was either that or “Main Event.”
JM: So it just sounded better?
MB: It was going to be Micah “The Main Event” Brakefield which kind of worked out because I debuted on a main event.
JM: And your going to be the main event Saturday night. So you mentioned in an interview recently that you are going to move into the pro ranks in January?
MB: Thats right if I beat Jer Kornelsen. That’s my [Middleweight] title defense on November 17.
JM: Because you are fighting out of the lower mainland right now how has the Vancouver councils decision not to sanction local professional MMA events within the GVRD affected you?
MB: It definitely sucks. People know who I am here, I walk around with friends who are pro fighters and people recognize me and not them.
JM: So you basically have to go outside the lower mainland to fight professionally. On the island or the interior of BC.
MB: You can go to Washington [State] as well. There are a lot of fights there.
JM: One last question for, how do you see the fight playing out on Saturday night?
MB: I think [Santos] is really angry. I think that’s going to make him get tired. He wants to hurt me, which is not the point of MMA. I’m going out there to win a fight. To submit him or knock him out and he’s going out to hurt me so I am going to try and use that to my advantage.
JM: Thank you very much for speaking with bcmmaevents.,com and good luck on Saturday night.
By Jed Minor – bcmmaevents.com