Justin Ibarrola has embarked on an undefeated run in bare-knuckle boxing that could culminate in BKFC gold on Friday night. On December 5, Ibarrola will battle former BKFC title challenger Ryan Reber for the vacant bantamweight belt in the co-main event of BKFC 85.
When expressing his thoughts on his fellow tough BKFC bantamweight prospect’s resume and skills ahead of their BKFC 135-pound championship fight, Ibarrola said: [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“I don’t look at it as a championship fight, and I don’t mean it in any disrespectful way to Reber. But just because I don’t think he’s at my level of competition, to be honest. He’s a great fighter. He can take a huge punch. He can hold the rounds. He can come back and win, you know? He definitely has that spirit, that fighter’s spirit. He has that grit, but other than that, I don’t think he’s been beaten by someone like me.”
“I don’t think he’s been in the ring with someone who can move like me, who’s as fast as me. Yeah, I mean, I don’t even judge him on his fight against [Alberto] Blas because I could tell he fought in that fight very scared, very intimidated. He had many things on his mind. And I don’t think; If he had not let the mental influence influence him, he would certainly have performed a lot better. I think so.”
“When I’m preparing for Ryan, I don’t even watch that fight against Blas. That doesn’t mean anything to me, you know. I watch the other fights, you know, [Quinton] Anthony Foye is a good fight that I watch because we both fought him and Anthony Foye is another; like it fits our style. He’s kind of a lean-back, technical boxer.”
“Then I look at all the fights with similar opponents that we have and I just see; I look at the reasons why it took him so long to stop them or I even look back on my fights and I think, how could I stop them before him? And I just look at those fine details, which aren’t much.”
“Like it’s really easy for me to pick up on. Like I know exactly how this fight is going to go. But the biggest kudos I’ll give to Ryan is that he’s durable and he’s got guts and he’s willing to go in and make it a blast, you know? But at the end of the day, I think I’m just going to bring a whole different level of experience that he’s not going to be ready for.”
As to whether this was a prediction he specifically wanted to reveal or if he was reluctant to reveal a more secret game plan ahead of this BKFC title fight, Ibarrola stated [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“I have so many different scenarios in my head to prepare myself for everything. I don’t just say, oh, I see myself knocking him out in the first round, because if it doesn’t happen then I’m not prepared for the other situations that can really mess me up. So you know I’ve never done that; I’ve tried to predict my fights in the past.”
“It never goes that way [laughs]. But you know what, I don’t go for the knockout in any of my fights. I have four knockouts. They just happen. I placed the right shot. Nothing was planned. It’s exactly what worked for me. So if we go with Ryan, we’re basically on a six-lap contract if it goes the whole distance, funny enough. So we’re contracted for a sudden death round if the fight is this close. But it is; man, there’s no doubt in my mind.”
“There’s not a planet on this Earth, there’s not a universe in the world where I even remotely think he can beat me. So you know, whether it’s a knockout or whether we go all the way, you know, because I’m the type of fighter that I could dance around the ring all day if I wanted to. I could get an easy win. I did it in my last fight.”
Justin Ibarrola initially fancied a break from fighting, but this BKFC title offer was too tempting
Justin Ibarrola continued with his take on how this BKFC Bantamweight Championship fight with Ryan Reber will play out in Florida. [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“You know, my last fight, I wasn’t even planning on fighting until Dave Feldman called me and said, ‘You have to fight him so we can possibly give you a title shot.’ So I was like, ‘Okay, you know what? I was going to take a break, but since you’re talking about a title fight and the pay is good for me, I might as well fight.”
“So I just went in there and was like, ‘Yeah, let me just calmly dance around the ring, let him miss, jab, not be too aggressive, and just get an easy win.’ “It’s not nice for the crowd, you know? It’s not nice to see, you know, the people who want to see me dominate. But it was just one of those fights where I just wanted to scrape it off and end it. And I knew exactly how to do that.”
“And I can do that in any fight with any opponent. I could easily go five rounds, dance around, minimize the number of times I get hit, and just a f***ing jab, just throw straight punches at you all the time, and make you miss. I’m confident I can do that with any opponent in any fight in that ring at any time. We can go six, seven, eight rounds, and I can just do that all the time.”
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