John Salter’s initial meeting with Rafael Lovato Jr. was scheduled to happen at Bellator 198. However, Salter was forced to pull out of the fight after an issue with his eye was flagged during a pre-fight medical exam. Having had a surgery on his eye to fix the problem, Salter is now ready to finally face Lovato at Bellator 205 on September 21st.
Salter is effectively having a second training camp in a row preparing for the BJJ master. Having felt well prepared the first time around, Salter does not feel the need to radically change his training methods.
The question on everyone’s mind is whether Salter will be willing to go to the ground with Lovato who is one of the most decorated grapplers in the sport. However, Salter is on the ground either with 8 submissions in his resume as well as being the 2017 ADCC West Coast Trials winner. Given his credentials, it is understandable why he isn’t afraid of the fight ending up on the ground.
“Obviously he is incredible on the ground but he is also good on his feet. Either way, I’m not scared of either spot with him but I think so many people go into the fights afraid to go to the ground with him that they kind of panic when they get to the ground and then it just makes it a lot easier for him.”
Lovato has finished all but one of his fights inside the distance, with the only fight having gone the full fifteen minutes being against Salter’s friend and former training partner Chris Honeycutt. In fact, Salter was in Honeycutt’s corner that night and believes that it was the best possible fight to break down in preparation for their meeting.
“Honeycutt is a friend of mine, we trained together for about three years. So I was in Honeycutt’s corner for that fight. I was really able to take a lot away from that. First hand from the corner and then go back and watch it on film and see what he does in certain positions and what he does when you start pushing him. (…) I think everything is better first hand. You lose a little bit when you are sitting back and watching it and breaking it down you kind of forget what it’s like real-time making decisions that quick.”
Originally a wrestler, Salter has taken like a duck to water to submission grappling unlike many of his peers. He believes that this is due to his willingness to put himself into uncomfortable positions and always striving to train with the toughest partners.
“When I train, I start on my back, I don’t start on top just because I’m a wrestler. I think that has gone a long way for me, I’m always pushing myself. If I find somebody that can push me in jiu-jitsu I’m going to go train with them.”
In a somewhat surprising prediction for a man who has won all of his fights inside the distance, Salter thinks that his fight against Lovato will be different.
“I just can’t see a way to finish him. I might get out there and I might find something to finish him. I keep telling everybody I really feel like this is going to be three rounds of us going at it, pretty fast pace and as hard as we can go. I don’t see a way that either one of us necessarily finishes each other.”
What there is no doubt about is that this fight between two grappling experts will be entertaining.
“I think it’s going to be a really exciting fight to watch, especially if you are into jiu-jitsu. When it’s on the ground you are going to see two guys that are on top of the sport going at it, not only in jiu-jitsu but with punches involved. I think it’s going to be an exciting fifteen minutes.”
Salter has gone 5-0 in Bellator with all of his wins coming inside the distance. He can count himself somewhat unfortunate to not have fought for the title yet with several key decisions have gone against him. Having been told that his fight against Kendall Grove would decide the number one contender but missing out in favour of Alessio Sakara, Salter does not agree with the criteria for challenging for the title.
“My goal is to be the Bellator champ and I keep getting pushed back. The perfect example is the title fight with Sakara just so people in Italy would come to watch. That’s great but what has Sakara ever done to warrant getting a fight for that title? He showed when he went out there that he wasn’t for it. I get it but you also got to remember that the guys putting on a show out there it’s really putting them on a back burner.”
With Rory MacDonald moving up in weight to challenge the middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi, the middleweight title is in somewhat of a limbo. This is because MacDonald is also the welterweight champion and is involved in the welterweight Grand-Prix which is scheduled to take place in 2018 and 2019. Therefore, should the Canadian win the belt, it may be a while until he is able to defend it. This is not welcome news for John Salter and other middleweight contenders.
The North Carolinian believes that neither Mousasi or MacDonald have earned the right for a ‘super fight’ just yet.
“He (MacDonald) has not dominated that division. He needed to defend that title before coming up and the same thing can be said for Mousasi. He comes out his first fight in Bellator, a lot of people think he lost that fight. Now you are putting both divisions on hold for these guys to fight each other when they haven’t dominated the division. I’ll say for Mousasi, he dominated the champ but I think there are three or four guys in our division that could do that to Carvalho and me being one of them.”
Although Salter does not have a horse in the race when Mousasi defends his belt against MacDonald, he does think that should the Armenian retain his belt it plays into his hands.
“I don’t really have one guy that I want to win over the other. Other than the fact if Mousasi wins I get to fight for that title sooner.”
Follow John Salter on Instagram: @JohnSalter_MMA