Chris Curtis has had a very interesting camp to say the least.
The Classic Entertainment & Sports (CES) MMA welterweight champion will defend his title this Friday night (March 31) inside the Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island. The challenger will be Will Santiago. The action airs live on AXS TV at 9 p.m. ET.
Curtis took some time to speak with MMANews.com recently. The 170-pound title holder detailed a “grueling” fight camp that included a certain training partner popping his elbow back in place:
“I’ve been walking around the last week and a half with a dislocated elbow. We just put it back in place two days ago, so it’s been a grueling camp. I really dislocated an elbow in jiu-jitsu. And I just thought it was a sprain or whatever, so (I) dealt with it. Went out sparring a few days later, got kicked in the elbow. (I) thought it was just still sore. I (was) training one-handed, doing jiu-jitsu one-handed. Yesterday I’m working out and Fernando Gonzalez comes up, I tell him what happens. He did the Mr. Miyagi. He’s like talking to me, ‘you know this is what you have to do,’ and then he just cracks my elbow. Just straight inverts my arm and then it cracks six times. I wanna be mad, but then I realize I can move my arm again. … It’s been fine since.”
When talking about Santiago, “The Action Man” admitted there are a lot of unknowns with the challenger.
“He’s a very tough guy. The guy can punch, (but) I don’t wanna call him a brawler. It’s not so much just brawling, he’s got a solid plan when he goes in there. He’s tough, he’s got heavy hands and he’s got a lot of unknowns. That’s what makes this fight interesting. You don’t have a lot of footage of the guy, but you’ve got a guy who’s knocked out pretty much everyone in the first round.”
You can listen to the full interview below:
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