Mike Wootten discusses his upcoming fight at BAMMA 16, TUF and much more with Kingdom MMA
by Connor Hutton - @ConnorHutton94BAMMA 16 features three title fights and the main card culminates with the return of Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley, but before the event we caught up with Michael Wootten (7-0) who faces off against Antoine Gallinaro (7-1) on September 13th at the Victoria Warehouse in Manchester.
You can listen to the full exclusive interview below:
Mike Wootten returns to action after a year away from the cage, however the Englishman feels no added pressure from ring rust or jumping back into a big event like BAMMA.
Wootten said: “Prep is going really well and I’m just excited to get back in there now, but the event isn’t going to make a difference. My career prepared me for fighting in front of important people like Dana White.”
He added: “The time out I've had has been unfortunate, I had a small shoulder injury but now I'm back firing on all cylinders and raring to go.”
Last time we saw Wootten perform was back in March of 2013, where he defeated Jody Collins at OMMAC 16. Since then Wootten has experienced the whirl wind off The Ultimate Fighter as part of Team Rousey on season 18. However Wootten remained calm throughout the chaos of TUF and admitted that it was exactly what he expected.
“It didn't surprise me, I knew it would be tough, managing your weight and the pressure in the house, but all in all it was a great experience. I lost to the eventual winner which was heartbreaking but I feel like I done myself proud.
I’ve learnt a lot of good things about myself, what I was physically and mentally capable of, there’s a lot of different things going on in there and it makes you a lot stronger.”
Despite falling out of the competition at the semi-finals, Wootten still feels that he is capable to challenge that level of competition consistently and that fuels his motivation to join them in the UFC some day soon.
“Chris beat me fair and square, but I beat Josh Hill who is now fighting for the title at WSOF. You learn a lot about your capabilities but you gotta keep moving forward with it.”
Mike now has the chance to kickstart his career once again and his first challenge comes in Antoine Gallinaro, who like Wootten has made a habit of finishing fights, stopping six out of his seven wins. However Wootten said he was unaware of Gallinaro’s history of success when he took the fight.
“I done a Sherdog search on him, looked at his record and I also had a little Youtube but the only video was his loss, but it’s clear he is a tough guy and a very credible opponent. I’m not looking too much into him, I’m just going to focus on my skills.”
The Kingdom MMA team will be at BAMMA 16, providing you with top quality coverage of all the news and updates from Manchester.
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