Pre-fight trash talk has been a massive part of the fight game for a long time. Many have shown their disdain for contrived pre-fight hype but few can deny that genuine bad blood make a fight much more interesting to watch. Ben Callum was prepared to go about his business in a quiet manner in the lead up to his middleweight contest against fellow unbeaten fighter Luke Barnett at UCMMA 26.

However, with Luke Barnatt speaking to Ben Cartlidge on YourMMA.tv this week and stating, amongst other things, that Callum has many “holes in his game”, the former heavyweight is now determined to make a point with his fists:

“As far as hype, I just like to come out and fight. You wouldn’t catch me coming out first and doing an interview like that. He’s talking about holes in my game when he’s never seen me on the ground. He doesn’t even know anybody that’s seen me roll; it’s an assumption not a fact.”

Callum started out his MMA career campaigning at heavyweight where he collected a myriad of stoppages and a title belt on the domestic circuit. As his training schedule became more serious, however, the weight started to naturally come off, enabling him now to cut all the way down to 185lbs.

Coming off a devastating KO victory at UCMMA 24 Callum is more than happy with his standing in the new weight class, as he explains:

“I’m a lot stronger at middleweight. I feel 4 or 5 times as fast with the same amount of power. I’ve knocked guys out as high as 135 kilos -- guys that were much heavier than me. I was punching above my weight back then.”

Fighting at UCMMA represents a solid progression for Callum who, as previously mentioned, has performed on various local shows throughout the domestic circuit. The young middleweight clearly handled the pressure well with his KO victory last time out. Callum puts this down to his workmanlike mind-set and other teammates alongside him:

“It was good for me to get on that stage. Bigger venues and bigger shows are great but once you are inside the cage it’s the same job. I was comfortable because the main event was Jimi Manuwa and I’ve been training with him. He’s the man so it was good to get my first fight on the same card as him.”

Now training full-time at Keddles gym, as well as Force where he started out, Callum’s training schedule puts him alongside recognised coaches and fighters such as Alan Keddle and "The Posterboy". This has increased his self-belief as he moves into the fight with Barnatt:

“When you train with such good people it boosts your confidence. I’m being forced to take big shots from people like Manuwa who punch a lot harder than Luke does. I’m not here to hang around, I’m here to fight the best and beat the best.”

Callum is also quick to defend his grappling skills that Barnatt has brought into question:

“I’ve got a really good ground game. I’m training with lots of good guys. Rafael Veron is the coach down Keddles and I’m working with people like Jude Samuel at Urban Kings. I feel good about my ground game, it’s tight.”

Back on to the job in hand, and Callum believes that he has seen weaknesses in Barnatt's repertoire that he plans to take advantage of:

“From what he says, he thinks he’s going to take me down and hold me, but if you look at my last fight I stayed up effortlessly with a guy hanging onto my leg. From watching his fights I can see that he’s uncomfortable getting hit in the face, and at some point he’s going to have to take some punches from me.”

With the fight bound to gain more attention due to the bad blood between the two fighters, Callum is pleased that their will perhaps be added focus on his contest, but he has his own theory on why Barnatt came out in the press like he did:

“I like the fact that my skills will get noticed and people out of my circle are talking about me -- it shows it’s paying off. For me I feel he is using the hype and the banter to build himself up. I feel like he is trying to build his own profile up, but he’s built himself up for a fall. I’m building my profile by knocking guys out, not trying to build myself up talking like that.”

As far as a prediction, Callum kept it simple:

“Before I was coming out to fight him, now I feel like I want to hurt him.”

Ben would like to thank Dave O'Donnell, Keddles gym, Alan Keddle, Paul Dewberry, Saab Singh, Rafael Veron, Jude Samuel, Darren Jones/Force MMA, Pro Game Management, Dynamic Fight wear, and his training partners Jimi Manuwa, Michael Johnson and Kirk Johnson.

Interview by David Lethaby, with thanks to Fortuna PR.

Check out Luke Barnatt's UCMMA 26 interview here.

Cage Rage UK 26 takes place February 4th at the Troxy Theatre, London

Cage Rage UK is sponsored by Bad Breed, Officialwatches.co.uk and GBR Nutrition.
 

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