Rafael Carvalho doesn’t plan on giving up his Bellator middleweight title this Saturday night (April 8).
The 185-pound champion will put his title on the line against Melvin Manhoef once again in the main event of Bellator 176. In their first encounter, Carvalho took a controversial split decision loss in a fight that was heavily panned by fans and analysts for being uneventful.
This time, Carvalho is expecting a war with “No Mercy,” but also anticipates victory. MMAJunkie.com recently spoke with “The Blessed” to get his thoughts going into the title rematch. Carvalho said that while the second fight will be different, he’ll once again walk away with his title:
“As far as my last fight, I believe that I, as the champion, walk in with a certain advantage. I can fight within a very strict strategy. I watch that fight video every so often, and I don’t see how he did more to deserve to be champion. He threw strikes that didn’t connect. He circled. He moved forward very little. I dominated the center of the cage. I cut him off. I took him down. I don’t see what he did to deserve the belt. And (in) our next fight, he still won’t feel the taste of victory.”
