Chris Camozzi clashes with Dan Spohn at BKFC 41 on April 29th headlined by Luke Rockhold vs Mike Perry.
The fistic fireworks broadcast on the BKFC TV App and Fite TV with the main card kicking off at 9 PM Eastern time.
Chris Camozzi spoke to Dylan Bowker of Bare Knuckle News to touch on his cruiserweight title goals in the company, how this upcoming fight bares a lot of resemblances to the prior BKFC bout, plus a whole lot more. Excerpts from the chat can be found below.
Chris Camozzi
It seems to embolden a little something extra getting to fight in Denver. Can you speak to why that’s the case?
“ Just growing up here. I’ve got a lot of friends, family, and fans here. You know, this is my city. So everybody has gotten to see me. Getting to fight in my city later in my career is always exciting to me. Especially at the big arenas.”
To your point of seeking out a multi-fight arrangement, is that oriented to a BKFC title pursuit or to ensure a consistent schedule competing?
“Both actually. You hit it on the head. Obviously, any promotion I fight for, I want to be champion. That’s why we do this. My last conversation with (David) Feldman when we got this fight worked out was that he would be making me an offer for a multi-fight deal with title pay and all that in there. As long as I do my job and get myself there. So yeah I mean, Lorenzo Hunt’s definitely in my sights… Bare-knuckle title is definitely in my sights.”
BKFC 41
What’s your assessment of the dual division titleholder and #2 pound-for-pound ranked, Hunt?
“Lorenzo Hunt I think right now is the best guy in bare-knuckle because he’s got two belts. He’s got a ton of wins, I think he has one loss. I think that he’s already kind of beat everybody in the division. I’m new here but I’ve been fighting forever. I’ve got a name and everything else that comes with it. So I think putting together another knockout win here should get me that title shot… If I go out there and knock out Dan Spohn right away, of course they’re going to want to see me fight Lorenzo Hunt.”
What’s your familiarity level with the top five ranked cruiserweights in BKFC?
“I’ve seen most of them fight, I believe. I’ve seen (Quentin) Henry fight a couple of times. Who else did you mention? There was one name I didn’t recognize in there. What other two did you mention?… I’m not familiar with Gustavo. Trujillo, is that what you said? Then Houston Alexander yeah I mean, I asked for that fight before. With Houston being in Omaha, I’m in Denver, we’re real close. So I was like let us headline a show there because we can draw in both cities. We’re driving distance.”
BKFC
Who are some of the competitors within you’re weight class you’ve been wanting to test skills with?
“They threw Dan Spohn at me which I was surprised. I didn’t know that he was interested in bare-knuckle. I keep calling out some of these guys that are bare-knuckle veterans and I keep getting the MMA guys, so. I asked for (Quentin) Henry also, I asked for that Anthony Holmes who won the, I don’t know, European belt. I’ve asked for most of the top guys and didn’t get a response.”
Why were you surprised to see Dan Spohn as your opponent here?
“I’ve known him (Dan Spohn) for a while. With guys not being in bare-knuckle yet, you kind of have no idea until they get signed. Just like when they signed (Luke) Rockhold, you know. I think everyone was surprised like oh, man. Just because he wasn’t even talking about it, mentioning it, lobbying for it.”
Chris Camozzi continued, “Same with Dan. I never heard him say the words bare-knuckle ever before. So obviously I’m super familiar with him. When they said his name, I don’t have to look him up or anything. Him and I were just in the PFL tournament together a couple of years ago.”
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship
How do you gameplan for someone making their debut in a new combat sport?
“Even in MMA, I don’t gameplan very much. I’ll watch a little bit of tape but I don’t focus too much on my opponent. I always just focus more on me. Sharpening everything I’ve got and coming in as my best self. I think when I’m on my best that nobody will beat me.”
What combat sports skills does Dan Spohn have that can be transferrable to bare-knuckle boxing?
“I would say his MMA career, he was primarily a striker. Mostly boxing. So the transition for him should be pretty similar. I think that he fights a lot like Bubba McDaniel did or does. So with Dan Spohn being a southpaw, Bubba was, I basically have already been training to fight this guy for months on end. My training camp was real similar from Bubba to Dan. I think they have a lot of similar attributes. The size, wanting to throw the check hook off a lot of things.”
Chris Camozzi continued, “Just things that I’m aware of and we’re both southpaw. So I’ve been fortunate, I guess you could say fortunate, that if you look at my career, I’ve actually fought a ton of southpaws. Like a lot of people will go with most of their career and fight like two. I think I fought like twelve. Something like that, there’s a ton of the. So I’m familiar with fighting both stances and fighting that way doesn’t really throw me off. Yeah I guess to sum that question up is just, he’s real similar to Bubba and my plan is the same.”
