Two proficient wrestlers, one with a record of 14 and 2 and the other with a record of 10 and 1, previous face-offs, and a little bit of “bad blood”.  These are a couple aspects that make the main event in Cut Throat MMA’s Lockdown in Lowell so highly anticipated.  With the fights happening on the 16^th of April, I was actually able to talk with Greg Reddinton in his last week of preparation for this fight.  Check out the blog to see what Greg has in store for Mike Welch as well as what he has done to be at his best to challenge the best.  Also, look in our events for the Lockdown in Lowell event to get your last minute tickets.  This is the fight everyone attending will be talking about.

 Chi-Town         I’m here with Greg Reddington.  To start things off, what camp are you fighting out of?

Greg                 I fight out of the Olymipian Center in Lombard.

Chi-Town         I hear you have an upcoming main event fight this Friday.

Greg                 Yup, against Mike Welch

Chi-Town         What are your thoughts on your opponent?

Greg                 He’s very good, but I’m only 19 and I’m sure as hell I can beat him.  He’s a very good wrestler, but I have a whole ground game coming at him.

Chi-Town         You’re only 19?

Greg                 Yea.

Chi-Town         That’s awesome that you’re only 19 and you’re in a main event already.

Greg                 Yea definitely, I’m looking to turn pro before I turn 20.

Chi-Town         So what is your record so far?

Greg                 It’s currently at 10-1 and I haven’t fought since January mainly because they couldn’t find me anybody to fight so it just stands at 10-1 right now.

Chi-Town         I’ve been reading up on this upcoming fight, and apparently you guys have some “bad blood” between each other.  How did that start?

Greg                 Um, I think people are making it up to make it a little bit bigger than it really is you know.  Me an Welch had a face off at the last Cutthroat event (Brawl at Bourbon Street) and the announcer made it out to seem that we absolutely hate each other and it’s not exactly the case.  He’s another fighter that I have to fight out there to become the best out there.  He’s number 1 right now and I’m number 2; I want to be that number 1 spot.  He’s been a little bit disrespectful to me and I’ve been a little bit disrespectful to him, but other than that people are making it out to be a little bit more than it is.

Chi-Town         So it seems more of an advertising tactic then?

Greg                 Pretty much

Chi-Town         So how is your training coming along for this fight?

Greg                 I’ve been training for a couple months.  I’ve seen him fight before and he’s pretty much a machine.  He doesn’t stop.  That being said, I’ve been training my ass off for 3 months now and now that the time is almost here, there’s not much more I can do besides cutting weight this week.

Chi-Town         how much are you cutting?

Greg                 (laughs)13-14 lbs.

Chi-Town         Well that’s not too bad since you’ve had 11 fights and wrestle in college.

Greg                 Yea I wrestled before at the same weight in high school that I fight in.

Chi-Town         So you’re still in high school?

Greg                 No no no, I’m a sophomore in College. I’m like the youngest one in my class.

Chi-Town         Since you’re a wrestler you’re probably going to bring it to the ground with him.  Do you have any other tactics you’re bringing to this fight?

Greg                 Well that’s probably what it’s going to be being since we’re both accomplished wrestlers.  He’s been talking about standing up and I would LOVE to stand up with him.  It might end up being like a wrestling match. We’ll just have to see what happens. 

Chi-Town         I just read up his interview that he’s got on the site and based from it he says he wants to keep it standing, but he’s never used his hands so to speak.

Greg                 Yea I’ve never seen him throw a combination without a takedown being involved.  Maybe he has good hands, he just hasn’t done anything with them yet and his wrestling is pretty good so you stick with what you got you know.

Chi-Town         Absolutely.  That being said, I’ve seen a bunch of wrestler vs wrestler fights in MMA and it ends up going to the ground.  From there it goes pretty much safe with the two not really going for submissions and just laying on each other.  That being said, do you expect your fight to be more exciting than just two guys reverting to wrestling?

Greg                 Oh definitely!  I have a feeling it’s going to be non-stop the whole time.  Have you ever seen the WEC with the bantamweights?  They’re never slowing down.  They’re at the same pace the whole time.  They’re 100% the WHOLE whole time.  Seeing how we’re both wrestlers and good pretty good scramblers, it’s going to just be high paced the whole time. 

Chi-Town         That’s good to hear.  Since you are a wrestler, how is that going for you in college?

Greg                 I was supposed to wrestle at Harper, but I’ve been involved with MMA.  I’m doing off season tournaments and I got nationals after Welch.

Chi-Town         I take it you did wrestle in high school.  How far did you place in high school?

Greg                 I made it down state my senior year, but I’m more of a Greco Roman and freestyle wrestler which is awesome for transitioning to MMA.

Chi-Town         I’m only asking because I used to wrestle in high school as well.  With me, I found that it helped greatly to transition into MMA.  The worst transition for me was trying to be comfortable on my back.

Greg                 (laughs) Yea that’s actually a hard transition for all wrestlers.

Chi-Town         Great, so I’m not the only one with a hard time then.  How did you cope with the transition?  Was it just through repetitions you got over it?

Greg                 I don’t think I’ve ever been on my back too long where I can just scramble out of it.  Especially for this fight, Welch will probably try to put me on my back and I’m going to try to put him on his back at least a couple times in the fight.  What I’ve been doing with my camp is pretty much practicing what to do off our back.  We’ve had state place winners (which is a lot in my camp) and wrestlers better than I am going against me.  I’m always ending up on my back with these guys, but it’s been helping me out when I can see them put me on my back and do damage from there.  It makes me get used to being on my back while trying to defend punches and thinking on my feet while down there. 

Chi-Town         Yea like you said, there’s pretty not much more you can do to prepare for this fight.  How do you see the fight going?  Do you have any predictions for how it will end?

Greg                 Well that’s what MMA is all about.  If it stays standing, I think I will do a LOT of damage to him, because I think I’m a little more accomplished standing than he is.  If he goes to the ground I’m pretty confident that I’ll reverse it or get a submission on my part.  Either that or it will go the distance.  It’s hard to say.  I don’t want to say yea I’ll knock his ass out or anything like that.  I think, if anything, if he lives up to what I’ve seen in him and I’m at where I think I’m at we’re really evenly matched.  Unless we catch each other in something I think it will go the distance.

Chi-Town         Well thank you for your time Greg.  Good luck with the remainder of your training and from what you’re saying this fight should be the one everyone should look forward for at this event.

Greg                 Thanks.