As he prepares to enter his first fight of 2022, welterweight Trey Waters is looking to build off the success he had for himself in 2021.
Not only was Waters able to go undefeated last year, he was able to pick up decisive victories in the majority of his bouts and build a good winning streak for himself entering his third year as a pro.
“2021 went really well,” Waters told MMAWeekly.com. “I had four fights, which I won all of them. I had three finishes. It was a very successful year, and I’m looking forward to taking that momentum from last year into this year.
“It had been longer than expected getting a fight, but now that we do have an opponent I’m excited to get the ball rolling for this year.”
Though he’s had seven months off since his last fight, Waters feels like the time away from competition won’t be an issue as what he’s been able to learn over this time has made for him to be a much better fighter than the one he was last year.
“I feel like the experience that I got in 2021 has helped me out a lot,” said Waters. “It’s made my game more well-rounded; I’m working on my grappling, and getting stronger and bigger as well; I feel like I’ve grown a lot.
“My preference for sure is to stay active. I feel like when I’m fighting back to back everything goes more smoothly. With that being said, it’s a fight, there’s not too much difference; so I prefer to fight back to back but the layoff doesn’t do anything. I don’t think it will affect me at all.”
This Friday in Denver, Colorado, Waters (5-0) looks to keep his undefeated streak going when he takes on Benjamin Bennett (3-0) in a main card 170-pound bout at LFA 133.
“I think very highly of Ben,” Waters said. “He’s a very experienced fighter and has wins (as an amateur) over guys who are in the UFC now. He had a very long, good amateur career. I think that will serve him.
“But as far as the match-up I think it’s kind of the classic grappler versus striker. I believe that’s what it will turn into, because he seems like is comfortable striking, but I’m a whole different animal standing on the feet, and once he notices that he will definitely go to grappling.”
While his plans for 2020 got pushed back a little, Waters believes he can make up for lost time at make the steps needed to achieve his overall goal by year’s end.
“I’m just going one fight at a time,” said Waters. “I planned to fight a whole lot this year, but I haven’t been able to get the fights that I wanted by this point, so I’m just going to take it fight by fight and hopefully end up in the UFC by the end of this year.”