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Lance Gibson Jr. debuts in Bellator
Interview by: Ray Vann Jr. – When he gets into the cage on October 26th, Lance “Fearless” Gibson Jr. is fighting for more than just his record. He’s fighting for his family name, and to prove that a lifetime of training is finally about to pay off.
Gisbon Jr., native of Port Moody, BC, Canada is scheduled to fight against Dominic Jones during the prelims of BELLATOR 232 MACDONALD VS. LIMA 2. Both men have two professional wins each, and weigh-in at 155 lbs. However, Gibson has a 5″ height advantage over the smaller Jones. This will be the first time Gibson has fought in the Bellator association.
Gibson tells Slickster that he’s been preparing for his MMA career since he was still in the womb, and he still remembers sitting in his car seat and going to his father’s gym to watch him train. Gibson Jr.’s first time on the practice mat was when he was just two years old, and all throughout his school years he says he couldn’t help but brag that his dad was a pioneer in the world of mixed martial arts.
A Natural Fighter
Throughout high school, Gibson Jr. dedicated much of his time and passion to the sport of wrestling, and even met the legendary Henry Cejudo at just 14 years old. By 16, he was one of the top wrestlers in Washington state, but it was that year that fate decided to intervene. Shortly after signing on for a major state tournament the young Gibson Jr. was diagnosed with shingles and found himself disqualified from the match. Despite this, however, he says that he was still on the scholarship radar but his enthusiasm for the sport was beginning to wane.
Instead, he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and during his senior year at just 17 years old, Lance Gibson Jr. entered the cage for his very first amateur fight. During that fight he was able to take down a much more experienced 33-year-old opponent, igniting a fire n him that hasn’t been quenched since.
“Once I got there I just knew I didn’t want to wrestle anymore.”
“It just felt so natural” Gibson Jr. said, explaining how that fight pushed him even further away from collegiate wrestling and towards the world of MMA. Still, friends lured him to give wrestling a chance and to visit Arizona State University. “Once I got there,” Gibson Jr. says, “I just knew I didn’t want to wrestle anymore.”
From there, Gibson Jr. began a career in the amateur fight scene, but his main focus has always been a breakout into the pros. With his father, as well as his stepmother – the legendary Bellator Women’s Featherweight Champ Julia Budd – at his back, Gibson Jr. says that he’s upped the intensity of his training more than ever to prepare him for his debut at Bellator.
And interestingly, despite the big name of his step-mother, Gibson Jr. says he hopes they never share a card together in the future. “What I do is I dive in head first to whatever I am doing in the moment,” Gibson Jr. told Slickster, saying that when he works as a training partner with Budd, he likes to put everything he has into that training. Being on the same card would mean he won’t be able to give as much as he’d like during those training sessions.
More Than The Cage
Fighting isn’t all that Gibson Jr. is about. He’s been supplementing his income with modeling and acting gigs, and most recently Gibson Jr. says that he did some acting and stunt work on the show Snowpiercer. He’s also an avid fisherman, and says that salmon fishing actually has a lot more in common with fighting than one might think.
“When you’re fishing, especially when you’re going after a fish like a chinook salmon, you don’t know if you’re always going to win. But you have to be 100% in the moment. If you stay too rigid, your line breaks, so you need to be flexible and you need to anticipate what the fish is going to do” the fighter says.
And, as for his debut at Bellator 232, Gibson Jr. wants to thank everyone for watching and has one prediction for his fans: “I’m going to be one of the best mixed martial artists Bellator’s ever seen, and I am going to be one of the best mixed martial artists the world’s ever seen!”
Lance “Fearless” Gibson Jr. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lancefearlessjr/
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