The Fight Library Vol. 1: Tales from Modern Day Gladiators

Andy Main: Four Weeks

October 9, 2018 - Mixed Martial Arts

Coming fresh off of a win at LFA 49, Andy Main got the call up to fight on Bellator 208 on short notice to take on a tough fight with Henry Corrales. While the fight is a short time off, Main believes that he can bring the fight to Corrales and make a statement on a big stage against a huge name.

Andy Main is excited to be back in action and to be on a card with the great Fedor Emelianenko, he is extra excited to be on the main card with one of the all time greats in the sport of mixed martial arts. "It feels good. I'm excited to get right back to it with a little time off. Then we got that win and now we get an opportunity with Bellator is really cool. Especially this card with Fedor and everything. I'm pretty excited."

His fight with Saul Almedia at LFA 49 went great for Main. He felt he had the best of the exchanges on the feet and that Almedia didn't want anything to do with him after that. Main does complement the grappling of Almedia but ultimately, he managed to get the decision victory.

"I felt excellent. Everything was going according to plan. Picking him apart on the feet. Just slowly taking control of the fight. I dropped him in the second round and then after that, he was done trying to strike. He started shooting in a holding me against the cage. He did a really good job. He's really tall. He was like a wet blanket. I wasn't really threatened by the takedown too much. I hit him with a couple counters trying to put him on his back. He was just like glue, man. He had his hands clasped around my leg or my hip. He was able to keep his hands locked where other guys normally aren't able too and keep climbing up and just pinning. So, a lot of the round was spent there which was frustrating because even though I was doing all the work, you don't want to give away minutes to control on his end if nothing' s really happening. In the third round, I was able to counter him trying to hold on to me and take his back and put him in a back triangle. Thirty or forty more seconds and I think I was going to finish him. The ref was kind of giving him warning because I was hitting him with elbows. He was getting warned but we ran out of time."

While it was two years since Main fought, stepping in the ring, he said there was no ring rust. He felt complete and there in the best form Andy Main can be. "Overall, I'm just glad I had that performance. I walked in there like I've been there the day before and just performed for the most part the way I wanted to perform. I had to figure out some stuff with him, but overall, I was happy with how it went down. There was no injuries so I can get right back to it."

Andy Main continues to talk about the thought of ring rust and says it's all in your head. If you've been training and you are in shape, Main believes that's all you need and you can fight at a moment's notice. He believes that the proof is in the pudding with his last fight as well.

"The mindset was there as soon as I started to train to fight again. I've been training but I had to let my body heal. I started helping some of the other guys from different teams get ready for their fights and started feeling really good. I was there and then the right opportunity come up. Then when you take that much time off, everybody's talks about ring rust. You have to tell yourself that none of that is real. It's only real if you let it be real. If you're training, it's all the same thing. That's how it was. I walked in there, the second I stepped in that cage I knew there was no ring rust here. The skills were no different than when I got my hands raised three years ago. Literally they walked up after the fight and asked if I had any injuries and I said no. Then they asked what I thought about Bellator in four weeks. I told them give me until tomorrow. Let my coaches watch the opponent. But I knew, I' m taking that fight for sure."

The call up to Bellator was a quick one for Andy Main. We're talking about terms of minutes, not days or hours. After his fight at LFA 49, his team gave him the great news that he was getting the opportunity to go to the next level, a major MMA promotion. And in addition with that, he was fighting on the same card as Fedor.

"We literally walked up stairs to the back. We're going over the fight and I was telling them how weird how long he was and how he was able to wrap me up. They're like, 'You would probably go for someone a little shorter next fight, right?' and I'm like, 'Yeah, definitely.' They're like, 'What about a scrappy striker in four weeks?' I'm just like tell me what you want to tell me. They were like, 'We got an offer from Bellator to be on the main card for the Fedor card.' I said, 'Sick. Let's do it.' Realistically I had to let my coaches watch some video. I told them if I don't have any weird injuries that popped up tomorrow that I don't feel right now, I'm in for this. That was supposed to be a one fight and it turned into a three fight deal."

The turnaround will be difficult for Main, for sure, but he is still adamant that he has been ready to fight for a while. With the odd size from Almedia, he believes Corrales will be a return to normalcy as far as opponents size goes. In addition to that, Andy Main thinks that the short notice plays in his favor. He says that he is preparing not to exploit any weakness of Henry Corrales at Bellator 208, but to be the best version of himself.

"I'm really used to fighting guys around his height, it's probably the average for '45ers. Almost every is in that 5'8″ to 5'10" range. With a four week turnaround, there's only so much you can do to prepare specifically for somebody in that amount of time. I train at multiple places and have such a good crew and happen to have two guys who are very similar already that I train with a lot. I got some sparring in with them and everything. In terms of game planning, it's just being aware. I watch a couple videos of his last couple fights and watch his losses to see how they lose. I see how he's fighting recently and that's it. I don't really study fighters. That's a coaches job. I don't go too crazy studying guys anyway. He comes out a good camp. You don't get to 16-3 without being pretty good. I'm not one of these guys that walk abound that thinks I' m untouchable. I'm a realist, I know that he's good. If I make mistakes, he can beat me. I know how to beat him, for sure. I know everywhere he's going to be strong. It's just a matter of doing it. I'm in shape, I feel good. I'm working with guys who have a similar style. But he could come out and do things different, but I'm going to come out and do what I'm going to do."