Luis Palomino takes on Elvin Brito in a rematch at BKFC 26 on June 24th with the latter’s world title belt on the line.
Palomino came on Bowks Talking Bouts to offer insights ahead of this rare champ vs champ clash within BKFC. Excerpts from our chat are below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJBsVTMVBVI?feature=oembed
Luis Palomino
Looking to create a chasm-sized gap in BKFC’s pound-for-pound rankings by becoming a two-weight champion
“That’s what I’m aiming at. I’m trying to just leave my legacy as hard to match as possible. That’s the goal we’re aiming at. Right now we’re a hundred percent focused on getting (Elvin) Brito and finishing Brito this time. The first time around, it was in a tournament setting and I wasn’t going out for the kill. I was being ready in case for the second round and the third round going to the title. Now I have this title, he has a title that I want to take. So I’m definitely going in for the kill in this fight.”
BKFC 26
What welterweight and lightweight options lie ahead for Palomino in BKFC
“At this stage in time in my life, I’m not very interested in rematches. Now look, I’m a company man. If Jim Alers for example gets together a two or three-fight win streak. He earns his way to a title shot again, I’ll gladly give it to him because he earned it. If the company says you’re fighting Jim Alers, hey then that’s who I’m fighting. I get paid to fight who they tell me to fight. Now if I could pick and choose, I would say the biggest fight for the promotion. The biggest fight for me, for my pockets. I think that I’m in a good position now.”
“A position to get paid is the money fight with Chad Mendes… If possible I’m going to ask the promotion if we can make that fight happen in Peru. I know I can fill up a whole stadium over there. Especially with a Chad Mendes name. I think it will be a great fight for the promotion. Like we said, I’m not looking past Brito. I have to take care of this first. But having picked up that belt. Once I defend that belt back at 155 with the biggest name possible after Chad Mendes if they don’t sign somebody else, who is there? There’s nobody for me at 155 right now.”
Luis Palomino vs Elvin Brito II
Luis Palomino continued, “At least nobody I’m going to make money with. At this stage sixteen years fighting in this game, I need to make some real money before I step out. My thing is Chad Mendes. Unless they find somebody else like a huge name, Chad Mendes and higher, that can attract a good payday then I won’t even drop back down to 155. I’ll pass that torch to El Tornado Tyler Goodjohn. We signed Tornado, ETW, East to West Managament company is our company.”
“My manager and I, we put a management company together and we signed him. We have him in a training camp right now. We flew him in and he’s my training partner. He’s been pushing me, I’ve been pushing him. We’re reinventing him right now. So I’m fairly sure that he can hold onto that title at 155. So I want to put him in that position. But I would like to defend it against Chad Mendes and make my money.”
I’ve been enamored with combat sports for as long as I can remember. I’ve hosted MMA talk shows Lights Out and Pure Fight Radio with featured guests like Jens Pulver, Roy Nelson, Miesha Tate, Mark Coleman, and more. I’ve been an MMA broadcaster for XFFC as well as BTC and have done play by play commentary on live pay per view on GFL as well as FITE TV. I’ve provided written, audio, and video content covering some of the biggest MMA promotions like Rumble in the Cage, Unified MMA, and King of the Cage. I’ve worked as a sports entertainment personality for over five years and given play-by-play or featured promotions of KSW, ONE Championship, TKO, and Invicta FC. My work can be found in the USA Today Sports affiliate MMA Torch, Cageside Press, MMA Sucka, and Liberty Multimedia.