March 20, 2024 11:45 am ET
Karl Moore has the biggest opportunity of his career in font of him. He can admit that Friday is not just another fight.
Moore (12-2) will fight Corey Anderson (17-6) for the vacant Bellator light heavyweight title atop the Bellator Champions Series: Belfast lineup at SSE Arena in Northern Ireland. What’s more, it’s a home fight for Moore – though he tries to make that not matter.
“I love the fact that I’m fighting in front of my own people in Belfast. It’s a once in a lifetime experience,” Moore told MMA Junkie Radio. “But for me personally, everything outside the cage is just irrelevant. It’s amazing, but when me and Corey’s in there, everything outside is just background noise. It doesn’t matter. It’s me and Corey locked in a cage for 25 minutes. Everything outside is just irrelevant.”
Anderson is 4-1 under the Bellator banner after he came over from the UFC in 2020. He lost a previous title shot to Vadim Nemkov in 2022 in a fight that was a rematch after a no contest from earlier that year.
Moore in 4-0 in Bellator, but seems comfortable with the line of thought that his wins over Lee Chadwick, Karl Albrektsson, Maciej Rozanski and Alex Polizzi don’t quite match up with Anderson’s Bellator opponents – Melvin Manhoef, former two-division champion Ryan Bader, Phil Davis and Nemkov among them.
But Moore knows his wins aren’t slouches, either, and said he’s prepared to back up the reason he’s in a title fight.
“Before Nemkov had the belt, I was the only guy in the division that Vadim hadn’t fought. He’s beaten everybody else except me,” Moore said. “I’m 4-0. I’m undefeated in the promotion, and in them four fights, I’ve taken out the fifth and sixth ranked guy in the division. I think that speaks for itself. When I fight, my fights are nearly always exciting too. I come to fight. I think that speaks for itself.
“”In terms of footage and on paper, yes, I would say (he’s my toughest opponent). But you won’t know until you’re in there. This fight could last 5 seconds and it could be the easiest fight I’ve ever had, or it could last 25 minutes and be the toughest fight.”
Anderson is as much as a 4-1 favorite in the fight, so the oddsmakers aren’t expecting Moore to make it a 5-second win, that’s for sure. And even if the fans could give him an edge, he might be so focused in the moment it would’t matter.
“After the fight’s over and I win, I can take it and I can soak it in and appreciate everything – fighting in front of my own people, winning the belt,” Moore said. “But them 25 minutes, it doesn’t matter. It could be silence. It could be absolutely mayhem. I’m focusing on the job at hand and that’s it.
“It can be in Belfast, Beirut, Bangladesh – it doesn’t matter. The job’s still the same.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s eventgholvlrlllg for Bellator Champions Series: Belfast.
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