Bellator Flyweight fighter Bubba Jenkins is striving to be more than just a champion.
“Not only do I want to be champion, but I want to be the type of champion that changes the sport” Jenkins told Last Word on Sports this week.
“I want to be the type of champion that people say; no one has a style like him, no one is like him.”
Jenkins, or “The Unicorn Slayer” as many fans might know him, is set to take on MMA veteran Joe Wilk on June 26th at Bellator 139. There, he hopes to regain his momentum after a recent loss at Bellator 132 via a violent first round Guillotine Choke — which saw a late stoppage by referee Herb Dean — lay the slayer to rest.
However, Jenkins (8-2) said he doesn’t see his losses as setbacks, but a necessary part of his future success.
“When you write a book, it’s not always about the wins, the wins, the wins, the wins, and then you end the book. To make it a good book, you’re going to have your ups and downs, some peaks and some valleys and there’s gonna (sic) be a lot of times where, you know, there’s got to be a comeback story, and I just feel like that was a chapter to one of my comeback stories”.
It’s a story he is not entirely unfamiliar with. When academic restrictions prohibited him from wrestling at Penn State in his senior year, Jenkins moved to Arizona State University and went on to win the 2011 NCAA Division I championships at 157 pounds. It was a feat that caught the eye of Jon Jones, who in 2012 invited him to be a coach on The Ultimate Fighter Season 7 Team Jones vs Team Sonnen.
But great success at such a high level of wrestling brought with it great expectations when Jenkins transitioned to MMA and signed with Bellator in 2013 after only three fights.
Though he admits at times the expectations do weigh on him, Jenkins said, for the most part they are a motivating factor.
“I want to live up to the hype, I definitely want to be who everyone is expecting me to be.
“A bunch of guys who are national champions, or who are just really good wrestlers, Olympian-type wrestlers, are becoming champions, and now people are looking at me like, okay when are you going to be a champion, but sometimes I just don’t worry about it. I continue to be, who I’m going to be, I know that I’m going to be great, I know that I’m training greatness, I know that I’m training not just to be a really dominant fighter, but I’m training every day to be the best fighter to ever put on gloves, and I can’t say that for everyone.”
Bellator 139: Kongo vs Volkov takes place June 26 at the Kansas Star Casino in Mulvane, Kansas.
