Matt Mitrione Says Chael Sonnen Will Be a Tough Fight For Fedor Emelianenko

Matt Mitrione spoke with MMAjunkie about the upcoming fights in the Bellator World Grand Prix and more. Highlights from the interview are below:

On a Chael Sonnen vs. Fedor Emelianenko: “I was really happy to see that Fedor won. I’m glad Fedor won. I think it was good for me and I think it would be fun to fight him again. I’d be really happy if he made it to the finals. But I feel Chael is going to be kind of a tough fight for Fedor. Chael’s a bulldog. He dives on the hips and he stays there and he’s relentless as far as getting the takedown. It may be a tougher fight for Fedor than what people give Chael credit for. We’ll see. Heavyweight power is a totally different conversation.”

On Frank Mir: “I want to express this: I haven’t fought Frank yet, but I plan on doing it. Most people say Frank is done. Frank’s not done, he just hasn’t fought in two years. That’s a long-ass time. He didn’t even have a warm-up fight, a tune-up fight. He went in and fought Fedor for Christ’s sake. That’s a big, tall-ass order for someone who hasn’t fought in a couple of years. His body looked good. He just has to get in there and get some rust off. So I think Frank will do a great job for Bellator. He’s going to do a great job for himself and his family; I just think he just needed some time to get back in there and get it flowing again. But I definitely don’t think Frank is done and it sucks to see people writing him off because he lost a quick fight.”

On keeping focused on his next fight in the tournament: “I’ve got to worry about going through Ryan Bader or ‘Mo.’ If I start thinking about fighting Fedor or Chael, that’s when the bad business happens.”