2/8/2017 – By: Ray Vann – Just hours before the kickoff of Super Bowl LI, I was given the opportunity to chat with UCMMA Light Heavyweight Champion and current Bellator Light Heavyweight fighter Linton Vassell. The English born champion has made quite a name for himself in recent years, and took the time to discuss his background, as well as a bit of the future, with Slickster Magazine. Here is what he had to say:
Lets start from the beginning, what first got you into MMA?
Well long story short, a friend of mine actually introduced me into after we finished play fighting ha ha. I ended up doing a wrestling move on him that ended up knocking him out by accident, and he said you need to do MMA. And the rest is history.
O wow, well that is definitely an interesting way to start up a career. Do you remember who your first fight was with once you got started?
I know a good way to get start my career. I can’t remember the promotions name but my opponent was a guy called Ian Tobell.
Is he still fighting today?
No, if I remember correctly he only had one fight before me, and I think he stopped after me.
Haha, shut him down after that one eh? So you got started up in the UK, did you find it difficult to transition out of European leagues? I have heard that in the past there was some bias against European fighters, did you ever encounter anything of that sort when you were coming up?
I have that effect on people, they fell the power and retire ha ha. No I didn’t find the transition different at all, but what I did find hard was the traveling from the UK to the states to fight. No I didn’t encounter anything like that, so I was pretty lucky to be honest, I’ve been treated really good out here.
Well that is definitely good to hear. Since you came to the US, you have been affiliated with the Blackzillians gym. They have had their fair share of drama these passed few years. Did you know about that when you got involved, and are you still affiliated with them?
Well that is another story, when I came here to the Blackzilians everything was cool and then things went down quickly, and mostly everyone ended up going to Combat Club with Henri Hooft and some guys went to another gym called CSMMA, so for me I train at both gym’s right now.
Oh now that is interesting. Has that caused any tensions, being at both of the gyms at the same time?
You know it hasn’t, I train Monday, Thursday and Saturday on my ground work with Neil Melanson and Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at CC Sparring and wrestling with Henri and Greg Jones
I feel like someone should do a whole documentary just on Blackzilians and what happened after. Such an interesting situation there, but lets get back to you! Your nickname is “The Swarm”, how did you first get that?
They should, it would be so interesting. Yes it’s the Swarm, my name came about from a previous sponsor who was watching my fights, and said wow you just Swarm people and don’t give your opponent a chance to do anything. And that was the birth of my nick name.
It’s definitely a good one! So who, in your mind, do you think gave you your most memorable fight?
For me my most memorable fight was the first Newton fight for the world title, as I learnt a lot from that fight, and it was fight of the year in 2014.
That was an epic fight. Since we are on the topic of title fights, some fans have mentioned that they would like to see you go up against fellow English fighter and former light heavyweight champion Liam McGeary. Do you have any thoughts on that potential match up?
Funny you say that, as me and Liam have been very vocal on saying if the opportunity came up that we would do what we had to do. At the end of the day we both want that World title and we are both in the same weight category, so it’s only a matter of time before we meet.
That’s a fight I think everyone would love to see. Do you have any plans to get back into the cage soon, or is it still to be decided?
I’m waiting to hear back from Bellator, so soon as I know I will announce who and when to the world.
We are all looking forward to seeing you out there again! Is there anything else in particular that you think fans should know? About you or about the sport in general?
Other than thank you and I appreciate all the love and support. Hope to see you guys soon, hopefully I will be in the UK card, as I missed it last year.
Thank you so much for your time! Just one final question: Patriots or Falcons tonight?
No trouble mate. Patriots