Jaylon Bates Totally Dedicated to MMA in Preparation for Jornel Lugo

Jaylon Bates went as far as shaving his head to show his renewed dedication to mixed martial arts.

Bates (6-0, 6-0 Bellator) will step into the Bellator MMA cage for the seventh time in his career as he takes on Jornel Lugo in a bantamweight affair at Bellator 290. Even though he took home a narrow split-decision victory over Mark Coates in July in his latest assignment, “New Breed” never hid that he wasn’t happy about his performance that night. In Bates’ opinion, he didn’t show dedication to the game and didn’t perform at his best at Bellator 283, an error that almost cost him his undefeated streak. Now, Bates says he’s in a different place mentally, and it will show in his clash with Lugo.

“Yeah, Jornel’s a formidable opponent. He was in Grand Prix for a reason, you know what I mean? He must be good. I’m gonna go out there, I'm gonna show the world just how great I am. I think that'll really put it in people's minds, ‘Well, sh*t, this is what happens when Jaylon trains; we're gonna have to figure out some things.’ They're gonna have to figure out some things. When I train consistently and I'm dedicated and my mind's clear, I'm a whole different person. It's a person I actually like.”

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(00:19) Cutting his hair
(01:09) Dedicating to training
(02:04) His holiday season
(03:21) Dealing with COVID
(03:51) Defeating Coates
(05:22) Preparing for Lugo
(06:23) Training with A.J. McKee
(07:25) Commenting on McKee’s victory on New Year’s Eve
(07:54) Hoping to take on some boxing matches one day
(08:38) Commenting on Lugo’s first loss
(09:55) What sort of fight does he expect
(10:59) Picking Ryan Bader vs. Fedor Emelianenko
(11:47) Picking Johnny Eblen vs. Anatoly Tokov
(14:14) Outro