Jared Warren and Josh Dyer will rematch with interim light heavyweight gold on the line at BKFC 47.
The fistic fireworks broadcast on the Bare Knuckle TV app and Fite TV with the pugilistic proceedings emanate from Jenkins Arena in Lakeland, Florida.
Warren spoke to Dylan Bowker of Bare Knuckle News prior to the prizefight. Excerpts from the chat are below.
Jared Warren
Seems like you would have preferred to be more active in recent times having not fought this calendar year so far. Did things almost pan out in an ideal way though with this big co-main event, interim title opportunity coming out of all this?
“You know what I mean, I am happy that it is for a title. You know even though unfortunately it’s the interim. It should be either for a vacant or fighting against Lorenzo (Hunt) if he would defend it. Yeah like after my last fight in November, I was told that I was going to fight the winner of Lorenzo and (Mike) Richman. Which was cool, I was happy with both those matchups.”
“But it panned out like it did and regardless of who won or lost, you know, Richman dropped down to 175 and then Lorenzo started his big talk about wanting to go to heavyweight. So it’s kind of made it a pain, so. That didn’t pan out like I originally thought it would. So this is kind of the next best thing. I did ask for this fight against Josh Dyer.”
Jared Warren continued, “He’s the only one that’s truly beat me before. It’s been a few years in the making and I’ve just come a long way since then. I figure there’s no better way to test yourself than an apples-to-apples situation. Where you can rematch with somebody that you fought prior to making a lot of training-type changes. So yeah, man, all in all even if there wasn’t a title involved I would still want to fight him for the rematch-type purposes. So I’m happy with how things are.”
BKFC
You get a chance to avenge things in this rematch here and with interim gold on the line in your home state as well. Both you and Dyer were having your sophomore bare-knuckle fights during the initial bout. What are the biggest differences in yourself as well as Dyer heading into this rematch?
“There’s a lot of differences for me as far as the ability that I’ve gained over the last couple of years. Because the majority of my fights prior to my little MMA stint were kickboxing. So yeah I was a really good kickboxer, had a lot of success there and stuff. But my first couple of fights, I didn’t have a regular coach. I didn’t have anybody to train me and I was just kind of going off of hey I don’t have a fight. All I got to do is just get in shape and I can probably excel pretty well. But I quickly saw that wasn’t the case.”
“There is a big difference between only throwing hands and being a kickboxer. A lot of different movements, a lot of different stances, footwork, head movement, all that stuff. So yeah, after my loss to him, I got invited over to Shift MMA. Immediately saw how much there was to learn, how much stuff I didn’t know. So it’s been a huge adjustment for me. Like even if this rematch didn’t happen, I do know that I’ve gotten better over the last couple of years.”
Jared Warren vs Josh Dyer II
Jared Warren continued, “I wouldn’t have made it to where I am if I hadn’t started training with them. But again this is a good true test getting to rematch with somebody before and after my training changes. For Dyer, I like to assume that he has learned things over the years too. I mean as long as he’s still actively interested in fighting, why would he not? But that being said there hasn’t been a lot to watch, to see of his. Because he hasn’t been as active as I have since we fought. He’s only had a few since then.”
“Win or lose, his fights usually go pretty quick. So there wasn’t a whole lot of stuff to see, if he’s made any big adjustments or not. I think for the most part he is going to be similar to how he was before. But that being said, you know what I mean like haven’t got a chance to see a ton. So he’s probably improved along the way which is cool. Makes for a more interesting fight for the two of us. So I’m excited about it, man.”
Photo via @bareknucklefc on Twitter
BKFC 47
You have an eighty percent finishing rate in the sport and Dyer has a one hundred percent finishing rate in bare-knuckle boxing. Is there a predominant visualization for how this fight here ends?
“If I was betting money, I would bet that it won’t go the distance. Usually, the only time fights do as far as like they do with me, the only time they have gone the distance is two situations. One, if somebody kind of holds and hugs the whole time. The other is if someone tries to keep away the whole time. If someone’s only goal in a fight is to not get knocked out, they can make that happen. They can keep their distance, they can run away.”
Jared Warren continued, “They can stay far enough to where they make it through the round. They’re obviously still not gonna win by doing that but they can make it through the rounds. That being said, that’s obviously not his style. I don’t see him running for any reason. I don’t run away. So you’ve got two guys that are on the bigger side of the weight class that like to go after it, there’s very little chance of it going the distance.”
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