Jack Swagger was recently interviewed by Wrestlezone. During the interview, he discussed his upcoming MMA fight in Bellator as well as his interest in AEW. Here are the highlights:
On Now Being The Right Time To Do Both Wrestling & MMA:
It feels awesome to be able to jump into Bellator, a great company that’s giving me a huge opportunity. You look at what pro wrestling is doing, it’s at a peak and surge in popularity, and I think combat sports and MMA is right up there with it. It’s a great time to do both if you can, which is very rare.
On Embracing His Wrestling Background:
I absolutely agree with that. It gives me more leverage when it comes to the negotiating table. I’m able to promote more because more stations—TV stations, radio stations—want me on instead of having to beg to get a fighter on. Being a professional wrestler and having that entertainment background definitely makes you a better MMA fighter.
On Why He Shouldn’t Be Taken Lightly:
My team joked around with me afterwards, like they’ve never seen a guy comb his hair more before a fight. It’s important! The little things are important and I’m going to embrace it. Why walk away from it? You know me as this, you know me as a pro wrestler, I’m going to embrace it and that’s who I am. I’m very proud of that, but that doesn’t mean I can’t whoop your ass.
On His Connection To AEW:
Those people might have a big show at the end of this month, so hopefully they can come to my fight. I would say they are—‘all’ of them are elite. Yeah, and they are ‘young’. I might say that they have a dream that they might want to kill an Attitude Era or something. This is the opportunity that pro wrestling brings, and this is the opportunity that MMA brings.
Ever since that first fight I’ve been reached out to by everyone in the world, like ‘hey will you come wrestle here?’ Now I’m in the driver’s seat and I get to choose who I get to work with. Like I’ve said, the last twelve years I got to work with some amazing people, maybe I’ll want to work with some people that will want to ‘buck’ the system in the future.
You can listen to the full interview below:
Credit: Wrestlezone.
