Chase Gormley Not Interested in UFC Return Following Bellator 175

Chase Gormley spoke with MMAjunkie about his fight with Sergei Kharitonov at Bellator 175 and more. Some highlights are below:

On his desire to stick with Bellator: “I like Bellator – they’re really great to me. The heavyweight class is wide open, and I don’t think it would be a smart decision to look at the UFC or one of the other shows. I think (UFC heavyweight champion) Stipe Miocic and all those guys in the UFC are no joke. Bellator is better for where my skill level is right now. I think later on in life, I can make some adjustments and talk about that in the future.”

On Bellator’s plans for the heavyweight championship: “The heavyweight champion for Bellator is going to be a big draw, so they want to make sure they get the right people there. That’s why I want to go out there and finish the fight, because I think it positions to me in a (potential) tournament or in a bigger fight or whatever they decide to do. If I go out there and win a boring decision, it puts me back on the back burner. The best thing I can do is go in there and knock him out. Then it at least gives me the opportunity for the title shot.”

On Kharitonov: “I think that his brain hasn’t healed all the way. He’s taken a little under four months since he got knocked out. I know from personal experience it takes about eight months for your brain to heal. So that first minute, I’m going to try to knock him out. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll go to Plan B. But I would like to knock him out in the first minute and I would say that’s definitely a possibility. If that doesn’t work out I have some different plans to set some different traps. I feel pretty confident.”

On the challenge of the fight: “It’s definitely going to be a tougher fight for me, I think. Stuff happens, especially at heavyweight, where everybody hits so hard you can’t really get too upset about it. You’ve just got to dust yourself off and come back, and I definitely think he’s going to come back stronger and work on not making so many mistakes.”

On the stakes of the fight: “It’s a crossroads for me really because this is the last fight on my contract for Bellator. It’s really going to determine where I’m going to go. Losing isn’t really an option. I’ve got to find a way to win.”