Following his decision win over Ben Hodge at Yokkao 20, Jordan Watson previews his clash with Giorgio Petrosyan on December 10.
Watson will be fighting Petrosyan in Florence, Italy at Bellator Kickboxing. It is a much anticipated match-up that was initially scheduled for April but was postponed after Watson suffered an injury in his title success over Sanny Dahlbeck at Yokkao 18.
Watson’s fight camp will involve the first three weeks at the Yokkao Training Centre in Thailand. He’ll then return to Bad Company, Leeds in November, to finalise his preparations for the fight in Florence, Italy.
Watson also reflected on lessons learnt from his Yokkao 12 loss to Sanny Dahlbeck and how that’s helped him to become better focused over the last 17 months; and work harder towards establishing himself as the world’s best 70kg fighter.
“I didn’t take it [Yokkao 12] seriously and then you need stuff like that – you need lessons – a good kick up the arse and ever since then I haven’t changed. I’ve been smashing training all the time.”
With his 29th birthday falling six days before the Petrsoyan fight, “Quadzilla” believes he is still improving as a world class fighter and better developing his fighting style.
For example, his ability to switch stances in combat as he did in his fight with Hodge at Yokkao 20. Watson is determined to ‘do it right’ with the challenges that lie ahead from December and to make the most of more rewarding opportunities outside of Muay Thai that are presenting themselves to him.
“If I win its going to open up a lot more doors to me. It’s going to give me that extra boost to my career.
“I’ve got Yokkao and stuff like that but then if I beat Petrosyan then it sends it [his career] the other direction, more K1 [kickboxing].
“There’s money in K1 still, in some of the shows though. Could be a good boost. Just gotta do it right.”
For Watson, the majority of his fighting career has been within Muay Thai, with a minority of (successful) fights under K1 rules. Despite having fought for GLORY Kickboxing at GLORY 5 – London in 2013, “Quadzilla” expressed his preference for fighting under full Thai rules compared to kickboxing. However, he is more than willing to take on the challenge of fighting the very best in world kickboxing if of course, the financial incentives are on offer as is undoubtedly so via Bellator Kickboxing.
December is shaping up to be one of the most historic months ever for the sport of modern day kickboxing, with various global promotions all hosting major events as the year ends:
Badr Hari vs Rico Verhoeven headlines GLORY Collision on December 10 in Germany which, will be an interesting TV date-clash in the US. Both GLORY and Bellator will battle one another on the same day this year, for a growing stake of the North Americas kickboxing TV audience which, GLORY have struggled to breakthrough in over the last three years.
Petrosyan will be the biggest challenge to-date for Watson, especially under K1 rules. The majority of kickboxing fans worldwide will consider the Brit as the underdog against the Italian, believed by many to be the best defensive kickboxer of all time.
However, if Watson is able to outwit “The Doctor,” it would be the one result in December that could possibly eclipse the biggest heavyweight showdown in history i.e. ‘Rico vs Badr’, and force the kickboxing world to remember the name, Jordan Watson.
