Sam Sicilia Is Aiming to Finish Emmanuel Sanchez at Bellator 198

Sam Sicilia spoke with MMAjunkie ahead of his fight with Emmanuel Sanchez at Bellator 198. Highlights are below:

On his debut Bellator win over Marcos Galvao: “I like the feel. It’s a little more laid back in a way – I feel it’s a little more focused on the fight, and that’s what the focus is. I’m just getting out there and more focused on the win, and that’s what’s most important. (Before, it was focused) on the entertainment, or chasing the big knockout. Now we’re setting up the big knockout and knowing the finish will come. There were a lot of other distractions, and we kind of cut those out in the focus.”

On his focus as a fighter: “I can think a little more competitively in there. This is all on me. It’s just another fight to me – I’m a veteran now. I’ve had a lot of big fights. I’ve bounced back from losses. I’ve had big wins. Now it’s kind of evened out and I know where my head needs to be before every fight, and I’ve found a way to get myself there every time. That starts in practice. I know I only broke that losing streak last fight, but I know how to get my head where it needs to be and now we get to apply it.”

On wanting to finish Sanchez: “He’s strung some wins together in a division that’s hard to string wins together. I think he’s a hard worker. He’s tough. He got a submission his last fight, but he sees that final bell a lot of times by outworking guys, and he’s hard to catch. He’s never been finished, and I’m a finisher. I’m not going to chase that. But he’d better believe if I feel that that’s there, I’m going to tear into it and set that up. When I smell blood, I have that green light in the back of my head.”