Bellator 146: Career Convergence, Girtz vs. Campos II
As Bellator lightweight fighters Brandon “Cold Roll” Girtz (13-4) and Derek “The Stallion” Campos (15-5) make their respective walkouts to the Bellator cage Friday night at Bellator 146, nearly two and a half years will have passed since the two men first last clashed at Bellator 96. On that particular night in June of 2013, Campos walked away with a unanimous decision victory over Girtz in the same Winstar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma where Friday’s highly anticipated rematch will transpire. As the two fighters departed the Bellator cage that night at Bellator 96, both sought relentless evolution as martial artists and continued to blaze their own unique paths characterized by both victories and defeats along the way. As fate would have it, both men now converge once again in the Bellator lightweight division and stand as evolved obstacles potentially blocking the other’s path to lightweight contender status. In separate interviews conducted last week, both fighters told their unique stories of their evolution as fighters since their first meeting, and the contrast and similarities between the two fighters responses is noteworthy.
“I changed my training camp. I’m back in Dallas training with Team Octagon MMA. I feel like I get more out here than I did in West Texas as far as training goes. Really, it’s just focusing on getting my mind right and wrapped around the fight as opposed to the lights and glamor of who I’m fighting and where it’s going to be at. I’m focused on the fight. I’m focused on what my gameplan is and what I want to do to beat Girtz.”
-Campos
“My major difference is my mentality. Back then it was a hard time for me. I wasn’t really in the right situation in my life and career where I wanted to be. Fighting, I was kind of just going through the motions to tell you the truth. This is a dangerous sport to be just going through the motions. Now, I’ve completely kind of changed my training. I live in Colorado now. Life is a lot different. My mentality is completely different. I’m not just going out there to go through the motions and just take the win. I’m going out there because I want to destroy the guy. I want to have a great performance not just for myself but for my family and friends. Have the performance I know I am capable of having.” -Girtz
“I’d say that my fight game has evolved really just based soley on the fact that I have learned how to really take care of my body and know when to really start relaxing and getting my mind right. It’s like a process. You gotta get your body fit and in the right shape. Behind that, you have to get your mind ready as the fight gets closer. You don’t want to dwell on the fight far out from it. You just know that it is coming. You know it’s in the back of your mind. The closer it gets, you start to think about it. You start strategizing and implementing what your game plan is in training, but on an everyday basis you don’t want to think about it too much.” -Campos
“Like I said, its keeping the mental side good. I try to switch stuff up and switch my workouts out. It’s not always the harder you go the better it is, and I’ve learned that through the years. I don’t need to murder myself every single workout. I don’t have to run on a treadmill. I don’t have to do sprints every day. I can switch it up you know. I like to have some fun with my workouts. I play racquetball sometimes. I go hiking in the mountains; while I am out there I do a couple sprints. I like to just switch it up because you can’t just keep doing the same thing over and over. Otherwise, it’s just going to get boring and you are going to take it all for granted, and I’ve done that all before and the outcome wasn’t good. I might have been working out hard 3 times a day but I wasn’t there happy mentally. You’re not going to shine when the lights come on if you’re not there.” -Girtz
“I really relied on calisthenics and that type of strength training and just natural bodyweight. I relied on that too much in hopes of getting a return on speed. You know, it worked for a little while, but going up against [Michael] Chandler and feeling his strength. Knowing that he obviously has some pretty good strength training programs, I felt it was time to get that strength training back into my regimen.” -Campos
Derek Campos (Photo Credit: Bellator MMA)
“I never get out of shape man. I walk around pretty much at 170 [pounds] 95% of the time. Fitness is a huge thing for me. If I’m not at the gym hitting pads, I’m at the gym moving weights. I’m at some sort of sport doing something. It’s my life. I don’t just sit there and put it together for a 2 month camp. I’m always prepared, and I think that’s the reason why I come out there with so much power because its not something you can build in two months. I’m building it all year round.” -Girtz
“One day I may wake up in the morning and go for a run, and I will get my wind sprints in. Usually, I will do my strength training right after lunch. And then, later that evening I will do my MMA training. But really, it switches up. I run and I swim some mornings, and pretty much every day I try to throw in yoga in there in the mid-morning if I have a strength training day off. It’s a lot that I have been trying to do in as far as keeping my strength but also keeping flexibility and mobility.” -Campos
“There is no perfect training camp. You don’t go through with no injuries. There is always something. I can’t let on some of the stuff I’ve had. I’ve gone through some fights with some major things counting the last and some of the next. There is always something. I’ve had things that you definitely shouldn’t have gone and stepped into that cage with. You’re never going to be 100%.” -Girtz
“This is my job. This is my profession. Whatever I can do to showcase Bellator and great MMA and make people want to watch it, at the end of the day then I can say I did my job. You know, that’s what it is all about. Putting on great fights and making sure Bellator MMA gets to the top of the tier as Martial Arts performance.”-Campos
Brandon Girtz (Photo Credit: Bellator MMA)
“I go out there, and I fight under instincts. If that takedown is open, I take it. But, I would love to showcase these hands because that is literally what I have been working here at Grudge [MMA Training Center] which is a huge striking school. I work my hands five days a week you know. That is a major part of my game. I go in with some of the great boxers, and I do just fine."-Girtz
“Watching Brandon fighting since we fought, the toughest guy he fought is obviously Melvin Guillard. He had a tough loss against Derek Anderson, but that’s just because he has holes in his game. I think honestly it’s the same Girtz style wise, a wrestler with hands that has tight boxing. Well, not tight boxing but his body is just like stiff. You can see it in the way he holds his hands and the way he boxes. Honestly, I expect the same Girtz that I fought. It’s what I have seen in all his fights since we fought.”
-Campos
“I’ve looked at fighting as a way to open new doors eventually down in my life. I’ve always been competitive so that’s why I loved fighting at first, but on the financial side you can only made so much from your fighting career. Most people it won’t set you for life. You gotta use it to open other doors. That’s what I have always hoped through the years I’ll start creating those connections that I will be able to step on to the next part of my life.” -Girtz
“I think from here I want to pursue becoming a firefighter because I like to help. As much as I like getting into a cage and beating up people , I really like to help people. I could see myself doing that. That’s what I want to do. On top of that, the kind of schedule fire fighters have I will have spare time to hopefully end up teaching MMA when I am done fighting you know.”-Campos
Girtz vs. Campos I: (Photo Credit: Bellator MMA)
“You know, I still want Marcin Held. I got a problem with ankle locks and knee bars. I don’t know, I’ve just never liked them. I don’t know why I just really don’t like those things. I think he [Held] would be a great fight. A lot of my fights hit the ground a lot you know. This would really just showcase me keeping it on the feet, and I know I would just destroy him on the feet. I really love that matchup. I think Patricio Pitbull would also be some fireworks. He likes to throw man, and I think it would be a nonstop action fight between the two of us.”-Girtz
“2016 I’d like to start the year off early. I’d like to fight in February. I know that the Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock card is slated for February and I’d like to be on that one. Definitely want to start the year off fast and get on the card. Make a statement and keep it rolling from there and improve my game. End the year great and start the year great.”-Campos
“Fighting is a high intensity thing. I’ve always been a high intensity person, but over the years I’ve learned I need to kind of level out and get that chill part. On a daily basis, I kick it with my pup (dog) and some of my friends. My buddy Pat [Barry] and Rose [Namajunas] they got another dog that is my dog’s girlfriend and we go to the park a lot. That’s kind of our downtime to chill.” -Girtz
“I like to work on my car. I have a 2013 Mustang GT 5.0, and I like to work on that and do all my own work on it.” -Campos
Best of luck against one another in the fight gentlemen, and thank you very much for your time.
As Bellator lightweight fighters Brandon “Cold Roll” Girtz (13-4) and Derek “The Stallion” Campos (15-5) make their respective walkouts to the Bellator cage Friday night at Bellator 146, nearly two and a half years will have passed since the two men first last clashed at Bellator 96. On that particular night in June of 2013, Campos walked away with a unanimous decision victory over Girtz in the same Winstar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma where Friday’s highly anticipated rematch will transpire. As the two fighters departed the Bellator cage that night at Bellator 96, both sought relentless evolution as martial artists and continued to blaze their own unique paths characterized by both victories and defeats along the way. As fate would have it, both men now converge once again in the Bellator lightweight division and stand as evolved obstacles potentially blocking the other’s path to lightweight contender status. In separate interviews conducted last week, both fighters told their unique stories of their evolution as fighters since their first meeting, and the contrast and similarities between the two fighters responses is noteworthy.
“I changed my training camp. I’m back in Dallas training with Team Octagon MMA. I feel like I get more out here than I did in West Texas as far as training goes. Really, it’s just focusing on getting my mind right and wrapped around the fight as opposed to the lights and glamor of who I’m fighting and where it’s going to be at. I’m focused on the fight. I’m focused on what my gameplan is and what I want to do to beat Girtz.”
-Campos
“My major difference is my mentality. Back then it was a hard time for me. I wasn’t really in the right situation in my life and career where I wanted to be. Fighting, I was kind of just going through the motions to tell you the truth. This is a dangerous sport to be just going through the motions. Now, I’ve completely kind of changed my training. I live in Colorado now. Life is a lot different. My mentality is completely different. I’m not just going out there to go through the motions and just take the win. I’m going out there because I want to destroy the guy. I want to have a great performance not just for myself but for my family and friends. Have the performance I know I am capable of having.” -Girtz
“I’d say that my fight game has evolved really just based soley on the fact that I have learned how to really take care of my body and know when to really start relaxing and getting my mind right. It’s like a process. You gotta get your body fit and in the right shape. Behind that, you have to get your mind ready as the fight gets closer. You don’t want to dwell on the fight far out from it. You just know that it is coming. You know it’s in the back of your mind. The closer it gets, you start to think about it. You start strategizing and implementing what your game plan is in training, but on an everyday basis you don’t want to think about it too much.” -Campos
“Like I said, its keeping the mental side good. I try to switch stuff up and switch my workouts out. It’s not always the harder you go the better it is, and I’ve learned that through the years. I don’t need to murder myself every single workout. I don’t have to run on a treadmill. I don’t have to do sprints every day. I can switch it up you know. I like to have some fun with my workouts. I play racquetball sometimes. I go hiking in the mountains; while I am out there I do a couple sprints. I like to just switch it up because you can’t just keep doing the same thing over and over. Otherwise, it’s just going to get boring and you are going to take it all for granted, and I’ve done that all before and the outcome wasn’t good. I might have been working out hard 3 times a day but I wasn’t there happy mentally. You’re not going to shine when the lights come on if you’re not there.” -Girtz
“I really relied on calisthenics and that type of strength training and just natural bodyweight. I relied on that too much in hopes of getting a return on speed. You know, it worked for a little while, but going up against [Michael] Chandler and feeling his strength. Knowing that he obviously has some pretty good strength training programs, I felt it was time to get that strength training back into my regimen.” -Campos
Derek Campos (Photo Credit: Bellator MMA)
“I never get out of shape man. I walk around pretty much at 170 [pounds] 95% of the time. Fitness is a huge thing for me. If I’m not at the gym hitting pads, I’m at the gym moving weights. I’m at some sort of sport doing something. It’s my life. I don’t just sit there and put it together for a 2 month camp. I’m always prepared, and I think that’s the reason why I come out there with so much power because its not something you can build in two months. I’m building it all year round.” -Girtz
“One day I may wake up in the morning and go for a run, and I will get my wind sprints in. Usually, I will do my strength training right after lunch. And then, later that evening I will do my MMA training. But really, it switches up. I run and I swim some mornings, and pretty much every day I try to throw in yoga in there in the mid-morning if I have a strength training day off. It’s a lot that I have been trying to do in as far as keeping my strength but also keeping flexibility and mobility.” -Campos
“There is no perfect training camp. You don’t go through with no injuries. There is always something. I can’t let on some of the stuff I’ve had. I’ve gone through some fights with some major things counting the last and some of the next. There is always something. I’ve had things that you definitely shouldn’t have gone and stepped into that cage with. You’re never going to be 100%.” -Girtz
“This is my job. This is my profession. Whatever I can do to showcase Bellator and great MMA and make people want to watch it, at the end of the day then I can say I did my job. You know, that’s what it is all about. Putting on great fights and making sure Bellator MMA gets to the top of the tier as Martial Arts performance.”-Campos
Brandon Girtz (Photo Credit: Bellator MMA)
“I go out there, and I fight under instincts. If that takedown is open, I take it. But, I would love to showcase these hands because that is literally what I have been working here at Grudge [MMA Training Center] which is a huge striking school. I work my hands five days a week you know. That is a major part of my game. I go in with some of the great boxers, and I do just fine."-Girtz
“Watching Brandon fighting since we fought, the toughest guy he fought is obviously Melvin Guillard. He had a tough loss against Derek Anderson, but that’s just because he has holes in his game. I think honestly it’s the same Girtz style wise, a wrestler with hands that has tight boxing. Well, not tight boxing but his body is just like stiff. You can see it in the way he holds his hands and the way he boxes. Honestly, I expect the same Girtz that I fought. It’s what I have seen in all his fights since we fought.”
-Campos
“I’ve looked at fighting as a way to open new doors eventually down in my life. I’ve always been competitive so that’s why I loved fighting at first, but on the financial side you can only made so much from your fighting career. Most people it won’t set you for life. You gotta use it to open other doors. That’s what I have always hoped through the years I’ll start creating those connections that I will be able to step on to the next part of my life.” -Girtz
“I think from here I want to pursue becoming a firefighter because I like to help. As much as I like getting into a cage and beating up people , I really like to help people. I could see myself doing that. That’s what I want to do. On top of that, the kind of schedule fire fighters have I will have spare time to hopefully end up teaching MMA when I am done fighting you know.”-Campos
Girtz vs. Campos I: (Photo Credit: Bellator MMA)
“You know, I still want Marcin Held. I got a problem with ankle locks and knee bars. I don’t know, I’ve just never liked them. I don’t know why I just really don’t like those things. I think he [Held] would be a great fight. A lot of my fights hit the ground a lot you know. This would really just showcase me keeping it on the feet, and I know I would just destroy him on the feet. I really love that matchup. I think Patricio Pitbull would also be some fireworks. He likes to throw man, and I think it would be a nonstop action fight between the two of us.”-Girtz
“2016 I’d like to start the year off early. I’d like to fight in February. I know that the Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock card is slated for February and I’d like to be on that one. Definitely want to start the year off fast and get on the card. Make a statement and keep it rolling from there and improve my game. End the year great and start the year great.”-Campos
“Fighting is a high intensity thing. I’ve always been a high intensity person, but over the years I’ve learned I need to kind of level out and get that chill part. On a daily basis, I kick it with my pup (dog) and some of my friends. My buddy Pat [Barry] and Rose [Namajunas] they got another dog that is my dog’s girlfriend and we go to the park a lot. That’s kind of our downtime to chill.” -Girtz
“I like to work on my car. I have a 2013 Mustang GT 5.0, and I like to work on that and do all my own work on it.” -Campos
Best of luck against one another in the fight gentlemen, and thank you very much for your time.
