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Doug “The Rhino†Marshall has seen just about everything one can experience in his ten-plus years as a professional MMA fighter. “The Rhino†once held the WEC Light Heavyweight Title and has fought against some of the top MMA fighters in the industry. In this interview, “The Rhino†discusses his Bellator debut, his WEC release, competing in a tournament for the first time in his career and much more.
Despite competing as a professional MMA fighter for nearly a decade, Bellator 89 will mark the first time competing in a tournament. What kind of preparation do you make for this tournament and how are you feeling about it headlining in?
Doug: I’m super stoked to be in a tournament. We train just like we train for every other fight. We had a good solid seven weeks to train. The only thing different is that we trained a little bit closer to weight, so I didn’t have to cut as much.
Give us your thoughts on your first round opponent, Andreas Spang?
Doug: Andreas Spang is a well-rounded guy with his amateur boxing and what not. He’s got some wins by submission, wins by decision, wins by TKO…He is just a well-rounded fighter.
You are a former WEC Light Heavyweight Champion, but you now compete as a middleweight, why the change in weight classes?
Doug: I was just too small for 205s. I was only cutting like 3 or 4 pounds, and the guys I was fighting were 6’ 6†and 6’ 4â€. I just kind of naturally bundled down.
Speaking of the WEC, you were a former light heavyweight champion in the promotion, losing the title to Brian Stann. Following that loss, you never again competed in the WEC or even got a rematch for the gold, what happened there?
Doug: I officially have no clue. They kind of dropped me like a bad habit.
Of your 21 career fights, only one of those fights have gone the distance, which means it is safe to say that you are a “finisher.†Do you feel that there are not enough “finishers†any more in MMA?
Doug: I think that you hit the nail right on the head; these guys are playing it too safe. They’re going out there fighting not to lose, instead of fighting to win. If it’s a big gamble, it’s a big payoff. If it’s a little gamble, it’s a little payoff. I’ve never been a late player – I like to go out and make it nice and hard and heavy immediately…you know, be a crowd pleaser.
The middleweight tournament has plenty of excellent fighters such as yourself, Brian Rogers, Andreas Spang and Brett Cooper amongst others. Is the middleweight tournament the most stacked tournament of season 8 (in your opinion) and is there any particular fighter you want to fight?
Doug: Yeah, I would say this is definitely a stacked tournament. The only one I want to talk about right now is Andreas Spang, and after that we can talk about whatever opponent you want.
Even though you have a lot of professional MMA experience, is it hard not to look past opponents in this Bellator tournament? Considering the winner of the tournament gets $100,000 and a middleweight title fight.
Doug: No. I haven’t taken my eye off the ball one time. I don’t care who’s in the next round, but this first round... My life starts and ends with this first round. That’s all that’s on my mind. You can’t think about number 2 before you take care of number 1. As far as the belt and 100,000, that’s just a technicality …that’s already mine. I got this dude in my way, give it another 2 months and then there will be another dude in my way …and so on and so forth.
At Bellator 88, the promotion finally got a new middleweight champion in Alexander Shlemenko, did you get an opportunity to see him fight Maiquel Falcao and what are your opinions on the new champion?
Doug: Actually, I didn’t even see that fight. I heard about it. I’ve seen that guy fight plenty of times. He’s just a tough Russian. Those guys are super tough with big hearts and he has a really unorthodox style with his fighting techniques. I would definitely like that match up.
In your Bellator debut, you defeated Kala Hose by knockout in under thirty seconds. Was it your game plan to just start swinging like you two did?
Doug: Yeah, I just wanted to come out and pull the trigger on him immediately. He is a fighter that hasn’t been pressured. He’s usually the stalker. So I figured, if I put him on his heels, I could move him backward to where he wouldn’t feel as powerful and finish him.
Is there anything you would like to tell the fans who will be checking out “The Rhino†this Thursday Night on Spike TV?
Doug: Don’t blink…because it’ll go down fast.
“The Rhino†would like you to check out Eliteteam Visalia on Facebook.
A quick thank you to Doug “The Rhino†Marshall, David Schwarz of Spike TV and Anthony Mazzuca of Bellator for this interview.
Be sure to check out Bellator 89 this Thursday Night at 10pm EST. on Spike TV featuring Doug Marshall and the start of the middleweight tournament, plus a Bellator Bantamweight Title Fight.
The Bellator 89 Preliminary Card kicks off at 8pm EST. on Spike.com, featuring a middleweight tournament opening round fight.
