Little article on Kendall Grove to get this thread going ahead of this Friday fight at Bellator 150.
Kendall Grove ponders free agency, fueled by memory of brother and Randleman at Bellator 150
2/22/2016
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Kendall "Da Spyder" Grove (Photo Credit: Bellator MMA)
With his hand raised in victory last September at Bellator 143, Kendall Grove (22-15, 1 NC) utilized an emphatic knockout over Joey Beltran to regain his footing in the Bellator middleweight division. It’s a victory Grove credits to patience, discipline in utilizing his range, and good cornering in between rounds. For the 38 fight veteran, the triumph was the first step towards redemption and the journey back towards another march towards Bellator middleweight gold.
“In between rounds, my corner and one of my jiu jitsu instructors,
Brady Fink, was telling me ‘Hey,
let go of that right hand man. That jab is opening him up.’ In the second round, [Fink] was like ‘You’re throwing that jab and [
Beltran] is kind of pulling his head back.
Throw the overhand; I know you hate throwing it’. I feel stupid throwing the overhand left [because] I’m so tall. I just feel weird, and it looked weird but it worked. Sure enough, I threw the double jab and threw the overhand, and it just landed. It was just
cornering. Seeing something I didn’t, and thank God because it was a close fight.”
-Kendall Grove
Kendall Grove vs. Joey Beltran (Photo Credit: Bellator MMA)
With the win over Beltan, “
The Ultimate Fighter: 3” winner now makes his sixth appearance under the Bellator banner at Bellator 150 as he faces Francisco “Kiko” France, a Strikeforce veteran and submission ace riding a five fight win streak.
“I got another tough guy in front of me who is good on the ground. I think [
France has] a six fight win streak, and he has been submitting everyone with
head and arm [chokes] and
kimuras. I’ve been training a lot of
jiu jitsu defense and
offense,
wrestling defense, and I am going to try to
keep it on my feet.”
In an MMA landscape where the buzz of free agency is alive and well as evident in the most recent examples of Benson Henderson, Aljamain Sterling, and Alistair Overeem, you get a sense Grove wants to be appreciated and valued for the years he has put into becoming a complete fighter as well. The frustration of seeing a co-main event placement and Bellator 149 payday for a novelty fighter like Dada 5000 to Grove cannot be overstated.
Dada 5000 vs. Kimbo Slice (Photo Credit: Bellator MMA)
“I’m just fed up with the whole situation. I’m worth something. I’ve never been in a boring fight. If it has [been boring], I’ve tried to make it interesting.”
“Guys like
Dada 5000, I busted my ass the last
15 years to be where I am. To say that I am a
mixed martial artist, to become a
champion no matter where I am at. You got *ssholes like this who are like muppets. They are getting big money fights. And I get it. They are a spectacle. I don’t know how they train; I don’t know if they train. [
Dada 5000] has two professional fights, and he got a
co-main event and probably getting close to six figures. I don’t know, I’m just assuming. Obviously, he is not getting chump change. I get it; he is putting people in the seats, but I find it a little
insulting to real mixed martial artists who bust their ass every day to make a name for themselves. As a fighter, you go in the gym and you put in the time. You correct the mistakes, and go out there so you don’t make the same mistakes so you can put on a show. This is the
last fight on my contract so hopefully I can go out and make a statement and either re-sign or move on to bigger and better things.”
Fueling Grove’s drive and motivation for his fight against France are the memory of his older brother
Martin and
Kevin Randleman, both who passed away while in training camp for this fight.
“My
older brother was
my hero. He wasn’t very athletic, but he
lived like there was no tomorrow. He was eight years older than me, and he used to take us cruising when we were young. Me and my other brother were like 8 or 9 [years old] in his piece of sh*t car pounding
Ice Cube and
Easy-E. I thought I was cool as hell. When I started fighting before the
Ultimate Fighter he just got let out of jail for non-violent crime, and he found out I was fighting. He was there for my
first fightoutside the
UFC. He was there for my first fight at the
[TUF] finale. If you watch it, he was the one holding the Hawaiian flag in my family corner. He was there for my first fight in the UFC in Florida and then he was there when I got let go. Throughout all of my losses, he was the first one to call me [saying] ‘You will bounce back; you are the man
Kendall.’ He was my older brother; he could do no harm. He always
had my back. If sh*t went down, he was the first one to swing no matter if I was right or wrong. It sucks he got taken so early, but I can’t complain. He
lived his life to the fullest, and I’m going to live my life to the fullest. I love him, and the only way I can
honor him is to go out there and bust my ass and make him proud. He is watching me, and has always been in my corner and will always be there."
In addition to his brother
Martin, Kendall also recounts the importance of having a mentor like
Kevin Randleman bring him under his wing early in his MMA career. Below he shares how Kevin Randleman impacted his life personally, and recalls a
humorous interactionbetween the two as Randleman trained in preparation for
Mirko Cro Cop and
Fedor in
Pride FC.
“Back when [
Randleman] and
Mark [Coleman] came to Vegas, they started training with
Mark Lehmann for his
Cro Cop fight. I was training with Randleman who has been like a big brother to me. I wasn’t even in the
UFC yet. He was just stoked he had a training partner who was down for whatever. For me, he was a
legend. I was a fan. I was like ‘Wow, I get to train with Kevin Randleman’. I’m going home and calling all my friends saying ‘I’m f*cking training with Kevin Randleman, what’s up mother f*cker?’ He saw me like an equal, where I saw him as a
god. The guy was a legend. He was a
UFC champ, just a beast. He was inviting me to his house for football games. I remember we watched a few NCAA national championships. His
Ohio State buckeyes played. I forget what game they played, but they lost and you couldn’t tell him sh*t after that game. He was ready to fight (laughing).”
“I was training with Randleman, and moving around with him. You know when someone is going light with you. I was there helping him and was like ‘Hey, Kevin. Let it go bro.
Go 100%.’ He stopped. He had my back at the time, and we were both standing. He could have suplexed me on my neck. But I was like ‘Come on Kevin; get your work bro. Do you. Go hard.’ He kept the back and stopped and was like
‘Bro, if I go 100%, you will get hurt.’ I was like ‘Thank you, you’re right. Don’t listen to me. I’m an idiot.’ He just laughed, and we continued to roll. He got his work, and then a few months later I saw what he did to
Fedor. Obviously, he lost that fight but he f*cking
suplexed [Fedor] on his neck. When he got back to Vegas, I was like ‘Thank you’. We just had a nice giggle. He was a guy who was my mentor and took me under his wing. [He] always gave me words of encouragement. If it wasn’t for guys like [Randleman], who knows where I would be."
Kendall Grove in victory. (Photo Credit: Bellator MMA)
With a win at
Bellator 150, Grove will be on a two fight win streak and there is known to be interest from
KSW for his services. As for a return to the
UFC, Kendall didn’t rule it out, and admits that his 2011 exit from the world’s premier fight promotion has left him scratching his head in retrospect.
“Yea, if I win this fight, it’s my last fight on my contract, and we’ll see. I was bummed out when the
UFC let me go. Why did they let me go? I only lost two decisions. Yea, I lost but there is guys who lost four in a row, and they are still with them. Finally, I had to say [to myself] ‘Stop being a b*tch man. Like f*ck, why do you want to be somewhere where they don’t want you.’ I had to do some soul searching. It’s true. It’s their company, they can fire and hire whoever they want.”
If Kendall chooses to remain with Bellator, the organization’s willingness to pursue a number of
UFC free agents could keep things interesting for him in the middleweight division. Most recently, Bellator signed
Chris Leben and when asked about his willingness to fight a friend in Leben, Grove stated the following:
“With
Chris [Leben], anything is possible.
Show me the money. Obviously, me and
Joey [Beltran] were under circumstances. He had a fight. His fight got pulled. He needed an opponent, I wanted to fight. [Beltran] was like ‘Hey, no hard feelings bro. This is our profession.’ Same thing with Chris [Leben]. I don’t want to fight him, but at the end of the day, it is our job. If our paths cross,
we are both savages. We will both go out there and put on a show. Like I said, show me the money."
