Better With Age

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Joe Warren first fought Marcos Galvao in April 2011, walking away from their Bellator 41 encounter with a unanimous decision. Almost four years later, the two will lock horns again, this time with the Bellator MMA bantamweight championship on the line.

Warren, who will defend his title against Galvao in the Bellator 135 main event on Saturday in Thackerville, Okla., believes history will repeat itself -- with a twist.

“We fought before when I was younger in the fight game,” he told Sherdog.com. “My skill level is 1,000 percent better than the first time we met. I want to be offensive-minded and finish the fight for the fans.”

The rematch with Galvao represents Warren’s first defense of the undisputed bantamweight title he won in a unanimous decision over Eduardo Dantas in October. In that bout, Warren paired takedowns in all five rounds with strong clinch work, as he became the first two-division champion in Bellator history. While he hungers for a finish against Galvao, Warren sounds prepared to go all 25 minutes if the situation calls for it.

“I fight in a really tough weight class,” Warren said. “It’s hard to stop somebody at 135 pounds. People can get hit by a truck and just keep on coming at you. I’m ready for a five-round fight. I’m a battle-tested warrior. If this fight goes five, I’m ready for it. I’m fighting some of toughest guys in world. I focus on trying to finish, but if not, I’ll beat the guy up and win a decision. Personally, I would have liked to finish [Dantas], but I went five and won the title.”

Warren is no stranger to championships, having captured gold at the 2006 Pan American Games and having won the 2006 FILA World Championships and the 2007 World Cup in Greco-Roman wrestling. Success on the international stage meant Warren did not make his professional MMA debut until age 32. In his pro debut in March 2009, he scored a stoppage victory over former World Extreme Cagefighting champion Chase Beebe in the opening round of Dream’s featherweight grand prix. Warren advanced to the tournament final before losing to top-10 mainstay Bibiano Fernandes in October of that same year. He made his Bellator debut six months later with a unanimous decision over Eric Marriott and has been with the company ever since. Warren held the promotion’s 145-pound title from 2010-2012 before surrendering it to Pat Curran via third-round knockout.

Warren claims he came to MMA somewhat reluctantly and believes fighting for Bellator has given him opportunities fighters with other promotions might not always enjoy.

“I never thought I’d be fighting,” Warren said. “MMA is a job for me, not a sport. I just ended up fighting because I started having kids. I get paid more to beat people up in a cage than if I were to win an Olympic gold medal. When I got back from Japan, WEC had a 145-pound weight class, but there really wasn’t much of a 135-pound class out there. Bellator had a 145-pound tournament, so I took a chance on the cash. Bellator has always taken care of me. Why I love Bellator is they give me chances outside the cage with color commentary opportunities and other avenues outside of the cage. That’s also in my future.”

Like any other fighter in his position, Warren sees himself as a work in progress and experiences improvements, not just from fight to fight but from practice to practice.

“Right now, I think my skills are better than everybody and I’m sitting on top, but every fight coming up to this one, I’ve gotten better,” he said. “I’m excited to see what new offensive techniques come out in this fight. Stuff is coming out now with reaction instead of thinking. The best part for me is that my confidence level is growing every day and my technique is working better. My understanding is better and things are slowing down for me. I believe the best is still to come. I’m excited to be a more offensive fighter; and [Galvao] is a tough fighter. If it goes five rounds, I’ll be ready, but I’m really confident that I’m going to finish this fight.”

Warren’s career path is similar to another international Greco-Roman wrestling standout who made his MMA debut past the age of 30: former two-division Ultimate Fighting Championship titleholder Randy Couture. However, Warren realizes he does not have an MMA resume comparable to Couture’s, and he does not plan on leaving the fight game anytime soon.

“I’m not comparing myself to [Couture], but we do come from same place,” the 38-year-old Warren said. “We both have that Greco-Roman background and trained at the Olympic Training Center. Randy’s been a mentor of mine. We were a little older because we came from college [and] then joined the Olympic team training cycle, which takes eight years with that. We’re built from the same breed. Everybody wants me to stop fighting, but there’s no reason to stop. As I stay in this longer, I keep getting faster and smarter. I’m going to keep whooping people’s ass for a while.”