Melvin Manhoef Looking For Revenge And Gold At Bellator 176
Melvin Manhoef Looking For Revenge And Gold At Bellator 176
Bellator middleweight title challenger Melvin Manhoef has huge ambitions beyond just winning gold at Bellator 176 in Italy.
By Shawn Smith
It would be easy to assume that the grind of training camp for your average mixed martial artist gets easier as they go on, falling into a rhythm and figuring out what works and what doesn’t.
For Melvin Manhoef, it’s anything but.
On April 8, the 40-year-old Dutch kickboxer will return to the ring for Bellator 176, taking place in Milan, Italy. He said this camp has been anything but easy.
“This one is very hard, it’s been a very hard camp,” Manhoef said. “I’m training very good, but I had a very busy schedule. This is how we do it, this is how we roll. I like it.”
While his English may not be great, his knockout abilities are. The Pride, Strikeforce, K-1 and Dream veteran has become a fan favourite, win or lose, because of his unparalleled knockout power. In 30 victories, Manhoef had sported Tyson-like numbers, recording 28 knockouts. Included in his list of victims is Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos, Ian Freeman, Kazushi Sakuraba, Mark Hunt, Kazuo Misaki and Denis Kang.
While Manhoef has struggled to string together victories in the later portion of his career, he has consistently fought the best available opponents. He’s shared a ring with the likes of Paulo Filho, Robbie Lawler, Tim Kennedy, Mamed Khalidov and Gegard Mousasi.
On April 8, he’ll share a ring once again with Carvalho, the Bellator middleweight champion. The two previously fought at Bellator 155, where Carvalo barely scratched out a controversial split decision victory to retain his title. Now, 11 months later, he’ll look to do the same thing.
Only this time, Manhoef said he’ll be ready.
“The first fight, he was a little bit passive,” Manhoef said. “I didn’t have an answer immediately to him. Usually guys are coming forward and he was backing up, he was not committing to his strikes. That makes things hard.”
Manhoef said he was surprised in the first fight that Carvalho wouldn’t come forward, adding that the champion’s reach and length made things difficult for the more compact Manhoef.
“If a fighter is very tall and waiting, he sees more,” Manhoef said. “The distance is very far so he can throw much more. When he is committing, I can go in during the exchange. He didn’t do that in the first fight. I think this time he will and we’ll have a much nicer fight.”
While Manhoef comes off as a ferocious fighter in the ring, he is a complete gentleman in conversation. He doesn’t want his legacy to be a pile of bodies; rather, he wants to help the sport grow and leave it in a better place than when he came in.
“When I become champion, I want to retire as champion and add something to the sport,” Manhoef said. “I want to give some positive thinking, I want to change the sport for Dutch fighters. I want to be part of getting the sport on a higher level in Europe and in the Netherlands.”
With a career that has included 28 knockouts and a variety of high level promotions, one could say that Manhoef has already achieved most of what he’s set out to do.
He’s just one title away from completing it.
It would be easy to assume that the grind of training camp for your average mixed martial artist gets easier as they go on, falling into a rhythm and figuring out what works and what doesn’t.
For Melvin Manhoef, it’s anything but.
On April 8, the 40-year-old Dutch kickboxer will return to the ring for Bellator 176, taking place in Milan, Italy. He said this camp has been anything but easy.
“This one is very hard, it’s been a very hard camp,” Manhoef said. “I’m training very good, but I had a very busy schedule. This is how we do it, this is how we roll. I like it.”
While his English may not be great, his knockout abilities are. The Pride, Strikeforce, K-1 and Dream veteran has become a fan favourite, win or lose, because of his unparalleled knockout power. In 30 victories, Manhoef had sported Tyson-like numbers, recording 28 knockouts. Included in his list of victims is Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos, Ian Freeman, Kazushi Sakuraba, Mark Hunt, Kazuo Misaki and Denis Kang.
While Manhoef has struggled to string together victories in the later portion of his career, he has consistently fought the best available opponents. He’s shared a ring with the likes of Paulo Filho, Robbie Lawler, Tim Kennedy, Mamed Khalidov and Gegard Mousasi.
On April 8, he’ll share a ring once again with Carvalho, the Bellator middleweight champion. The two previously fought at Bellator 155, where Carvalo barely scratched out a controversial split decision victory to retain his title. Now, 11 months later, he’ll look to do the same thing.
Only this time, Manhoef said he’ll be ready.
“The first fight, he was a little bit passive,” Manhoef said. “I didn’t have an answer immediately to him. Usually guys are coming forward and he was backing up, he was not committing to his strikes. That makes things hard.”
Manhoef said he was surprised in the first fight that Carvalho wouldn’t come forward, adding that the champion’s reach and length made things difficult for the more compact Manhoef.
“If a fighter is very tall and waiting, he sees more,” Manhoef said. “The distance is very far so he can throw much more. When he is committing, I can go in during the exchange. He didn’t do that in the first fight. I think this time he will and we’ll have a much nicer fight.”
While Manhoef comes off as a ferocious fighter in the ring, he is a complete gentleman in conversation. He doesn’t want his legacy to be a pile of bodies; rather, he wants to help the sport grow and leave it in a better place than when he came in.
“When I become champion, I want to retire as champion and add something to the sport,” Manhoef said. “I want to give some positive thinking, I want to change the sport for Dutch fighters. I want to be part of getting the sport on a higher level in Europe and in the Netherlands.”
With a career that has included 28 knockouts and a variety of high level promotions, one could say that Manhoef has already achieved most of what he’s set out to do.
He’s just one title away from completing it.