Bellator 114's Kendall Grove: 'Hang with crackheads, you're going to be a crackhead'

MMA veteran Kendall Grove recently left Hawaii and spent his training camp for Friday’s Bellator 114 event at the famed Alliance MMA camp in San Diego. The reason, he said, is simple.

“I always tell my students, ‘If you hang around with crackheads, you’re going to be a crackhead. If you hang out with successful people, you’re going to be a successful person,’” Grove said. “You adapt to your surroundings, and that’s what I did. I took myself out of my comfort zone and into an unfamiliar situation as a student of the sport, and I learned. And that’s what I needed.”

Grove (20-13 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) hopes it pays off at Bellator 114, which takes place at the Maverik Center in West Valley, Utah. His bout with Brett Cooper (19-9 MMA, 6-4 BMMA) kicks off the Spike TV-televised main card, which follows prelims on Spike.com.

The fight is part of the four-man Season 10 middleweight tournament, the winner of which gets a title shot. Grove, best known for winning “The Ultimate Fighter 3? and a 13-fight run the UFC, made his Bellator debut in October, when he earned a decision victory over Joe Vedepo.

Grove said that fight was part of the reason he hooked up with Alliance.

“I won my last fight – not the way I wanted to win it, but I got my first-time jitters out of the way, and I really wanted to be in this tournament,” he said. “Joe Vedepo put up a good fight and I’m happy to get that win, but I want to start finishing guys. That’s why I went to Alliance: to get in the atmosphere with better guys who will really push you into being a better fighter.

“I’ve been focusing on improving my wrestling, but also on kicking more and using my length better. You’re either going to fade away and die off, or you correct yourself and learn to adapt, to improve.”

Grove, a 31-year-old who’s spent 11 of those years as a professional MMA fighter, has seen stretches of inconstancy while trotting the globe and fighting for organizations like ProElite, ShoFight, KSW and others. A four-fight winning streak preceded three straight losses, which Grove then followed with his current two-fight winning streak.

He admits that even in his early career, few people thought much of him. And the 6-6 fighter certainly had his share of doubters while he competed in the UFC and struggled with inconsistency. Grove, though, always had a single focus.

“I fight my ass off no matter what,” said Grove, who’s earned stoppages in 70 percent of his career wins. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. A lot of people don’t get that. They think we can go in there and do whatever we want. We’re fighting someone who’s trained for around six months for you and your style specifically. I’m just focused on putting on a good show to the fans.

“I’m different now. I’m an evolved animal. I’ve always had the toughness and the eagerness to finish fights, but I’ve been training with 20 killers, and now I’m a killer. Training has been really intense, and that’s how it should be.”

Grove, though, knows he may have only so many opportunities left. Now in his second decade as a pro fighter, Grove sees the next generation of competitors as they look for big-show opportunities like the one he gets on Friday. That’s why he’s putting so much pressure on himself to perform.

“I can’t f–k up this opportunity,” he said. “A lot of guys are just getting their first chance in the big show at age 31, but I’ve been there since 2006. I’m embracing this situation. I’m excited. I can’t wait. It’s a big opportunity for my family too. I’m not going to let it slip by, and I’m going to die trying.”

Another motivating factor? The doubters. “Everyone thought I was done and gone,” said Grove, who believes a lifetime of proving them wrong has helped prepare him for Friday’s tourney fight.

“That’s my whole thing: I was a skinny dude and always got my ass kicked,” he said. “My brother always told me to at least try to take a swing if I was going to get my ass kicked anyway. So I’d always be walking away saying, ‘I still got a few shots in, though.’

“I can go 25 minutes nonstop, as hard as I can. I can box, I can strike, and I can do all this. Now I have to apply it on fight night. I’ve got stick to the gameplan, but if the gameplan doesn’t work? F–k it. I’m swinging anyway.”

For more on Bellator 114, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.