Gegard Mousasi is arguably the best fighter Bellator MMA has snagged from the UFC to date, and this weekend, in the main event of Bellator185, the former Strikeforce and Dream light heavyweight champ will make his promotional debut.
Though he probably could have been rushed into an immediate title shot opposite champ Rafael Carvalho, he’ll instead battle former champion Alexander Shlemenko, while the next Bellator middleweight title shot goes to fellow UFC veteran Alessio Sakara.
Ahead of his Bellator debut, Mousasi spoke to MMAJunkie to discuss his future with the organization. Unsurprisingly, he has big plans.
His first priority, of course, is Shlemenko. From there, he hopes to battle the winner of Carvalho and Sakara, capture middleweight gold, and then battle another former UFC star in Rory MacDonald. Once that’s done, Mousasi plans to head to light heavyweight, where fights with stars like Ryan Bader, Phil Davis, Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal, Chael Sonnen and others await. His words:
“For me there are a lot of options,” Mousasi said. “I have to beat Shlemenko first, then the title fight, then maybe a matchup against Rory MacDonald, and then maybe light heavyweight. In light heavyweight, you have ‘King Mo’ (Lawal); you have Ryan Bader, Phil Davis, Chael Sonnen, Wanderlei Silva, ‘Rampage’ Jackson – all big names. Plenty of names I can fight and make exciting fights.”
Once Mousasi has checked these items off his list, he admits it might just be time to retire.
“As a fighter I feel like I’m not near the end of my career because I’m still winning,” Mousasi said. “But after six fights, I will probably be around 34 or 35. I think that’s a good age to retire, but I’m not thinking about that too much. I want to see what the results of the fights are going to be. If I keep losing, then of course it doesn’t make sense to continue. If I keep winning, I will keep continuing for maybe another three fights and then see again after that.”
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How do you think Gegard Mousasi will perform in the Bellator cage?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 10/17/2017